Feral Paradise: War of the Demon King
by Thait
Summary: prequel to Feral Paradise. Ranma and Genma's training trip comes to a screeching halt when they become involved in a war to save Jusenkyo. Ranma swears vengance, Genma wants to flee, and the three tribes merely want to survive.
1. Chapter 1

Okay! Some people who reviewed Feral Paradise have asked for a backstory to give the reasons for why Ranma acts the way he/she does in that story. So Feral Paradise is on hold until this prequel is completed, hopefully. I'm going to try and write a prequel, if I screw this up badly enough I just may have to go back to finishing feral paradise instead. Review this and tell me if Ranma is too far from canon at the start as he will be changing as the story goes on, hopefully not changing to fast.

This story wont just focus on Ranma and Ryoga though they are the two main characters, hopefully Ryoga will have his own story after Feral Paradise if I manage to get that far, as this is a war there are other characters doing their part. Some like Saffron will be ooc due mainly to him having to be ooc for the story to progress. Though technically he was only around for a short time in the manga anyway. Yes before anyone asks Ryoga will have his directional problem fixed after a time, its going to be useful a few times first. And no, everyone will not spontaneously begin to speak Japanese for Ranma and Ryoga's benefit, the elders and phoenix tribe will deal with the language problem the two boys, and Genma, have. Genma will be in the story, and he will fight but I wont focus on him very much at all.

I have nothing to do with Ranma ½.

* * *

Smoke coiled lazily from the guide's pipe as he watched the two martial artists fighting across the bamboo poles sticking up from the Jusenkyo springs. He had been sitting watching them for two and a half days now as they had, somehow, managed to avoid a dunking in the springs. While immediately not falling in wasn't something new the almost three days was approaching the record for the longest time spent by a group without getting cursed. The guide had to admit that the two were exceptional fighters on par with the best of the amazons, bar the elders. 

Ranma planted a hand on the end of one of the bamboo poles and kicked upwards with both legs landing a strong strike to Genma's gut throwing him into the air. The older martial artist caught a pole and sprung himself to another pole landing lightly before leaping forward and landing a blow that sent Ranma to the ground between two springs. The boy leapt up and launched a furious assault into Genma that he couldn't defend against completely and sent him flying backwards into a spring.

"Guess I win this one eh pops." Ranma smirked for a second before a large panda exploded from the water to land on a pole taking up a stance his father normally used. The pigtailed boy remembered the guides frantic talking when they had first arrived but pops had distracted him and the guide had never talked about it again. The guide had said something about cursed springs and Ranma was starting to understand that maybe they should have listened.

The pigtailed boy jumped back retreating across the poles as panda Genma charged after him seeming completely unknowing of his changed form. Ranma defended against several strikes and continued to try and get his father to see the fact that he was cursed and had changed form. Through sheer luck Ranma reached the edge of the springs in one area and leapt to the ground defending against the panda until he could throw him into the cliff.

"Look at ya pops, yer a panda!" Ranma had to dodge another strike before Genma seemed to some to his senses and looked down.

"GROWF!" The older man, now panda, turned to the guide.

"Tried to warn mister customers, but no one ever listens to the guide." The guide sat back and watched the anger growing on the young mans face, thankfully directed at his father.

"You could have got me cursed you idiot!" Ranma leapt forward as the panda bolted and the guide got to see the beginning of a chase the likes of which he hadn't seen in six years.

Ryoga stood at the top of the cliff staring out at the springs below him wondering if he was ever going to catch up to Ranma and get revenge for the fight the other boy had failed to show up for. It was at that exact time that he saw two figures rushing along the cliff towards him, while he could care less about the panda, the pigtailed fighter chasing it was another matter. "Ranma! Finally I can have my revenge!" And Ryoga leapt forward.

The lost boy tossed off Ranma's balance when he attacked the other martial artist and the panda was able to strike both of them with a throw…right over the cliff and down towards the springs.

"Damn you pops!" Ranma shouted.

The guide watched the two fall, wincing as the new young mister customer hit the cliff and rebounded off of it to impact the other boy and knock them into two springs. The closest spring bubbled slightly then burst upwards as a fur covered form broke the surface of the spring.

"New young mister customer fall in spring of drowned werewolf, very happy tale of vicious werewolf who was drowned in spring by wolf demoness over 7000 year ago." The guide turned to the other martial artist who was now just sitting in the shallow pool staring at his, now her, chest. "That one spring of drowned female wolf demon, very happy tale of wolf demoness who drowned in spring by musk dynasty warriors after demoness drown werewolf over 7000 year ago."

Ranma couldn't help but sit and stare at the chest that now pushed her top open and realize that he was now a she, because of that other boy. Her now sharper mind latched onto the boys image and searched her memory settling on one image and marking it as the most likely match. Right after that her mind decided on a course of action.

"Ryoga Hibiki, prepare for pain!" The red haired demoness launched herself across the intervening springs and attacked the werewolf.

"As can see, curse is reversible with hot water." The Guide said four hours later after Ranma and Ryoga had exhausted themselves. "But curse form will return with cold water, can't be cured."

"This is your fault Ranma!" Ryoga jumped up to attack only to get knocked down by an angry Ranma "My fault! You're the one that attacked me!"

"You knocked me off the cliff!" Ryoga countered with a straight punch that Ranma evaded.

"What the hell are you talking about pops was the one that…" Both boys turned to look at the panda who hadn't got any hot water yet.

The guide sighed as his front door was torn down for the 78th time in the last ten years and went to find the repair kit knowing that the three foreigners knew the way to change back so they would either be back or head outward.

"We're lost." Ranma looked around as she tried to figure out exactly where they were by the position of the sun.

2 HOURS LATER

"It was a good thing I found those hot springs for us wasn't it boys." Genma puffed out his chest at his own achievement.

"Yeah real great job pops. Though come to think of it we wouldn't even have needed them if you hadn't gotten us CURSED!" He shouted the last word in his fathers right ear before stalking back towards were he had put his pack.

"Where do you think the guides place is?" Again Ranma tried to find a direction that might take them back to Jusenkyo and the guide.

"Who cares boy, it just means we don't have to pay him anything. Now let's get going, I have this map that should help us get out of here without running into danger."

2 HOURS LATER

"NOT RUNNING INTO DANGER HUH!" Ranma screamed as he dodged another strike from a snake the size of a semi truck and struggled to duck under a swipe from a bear the size of a house while making sure Ryoga didn't get lost.

2 HOURS LATER

"I'LL KILL YOU POPS!" The cursed martial artist was currently trying to disengage himself from a plant that was doing its best to eat him while Ryoga used his belt to cut away at the vines.

2 HOURS LATER

Ranma rolled around on the ground laughing as a Genma-panda tried to fight off a female panda that seemed to find him good looking.

SEVERAL DAYS LATER

Ranma muttered curses as she stalked through the forest shooting glares at her father for splashing her and Ryoga earlier in a bout of 'if you can't dodge the water you're slacking off.'

Ranma frowned as she wandered down what, to her and Ryoga, looked to be a path used by hunters.

Ever since she had gotten cursed whenever she was in her cursed form things seemed to be so different. Colors were brighter and smells were clearer, hell she could see with a sharpness that had staggered her once she had calmed down after her panda chase. But it wasn't just that, she had found that if she was in her cursed form her fathers punches felt allot weaker and she always felt like she had massive amounts of energy just waiting too be tapped.

The three martial artists wandered into the edge of a large village that looked to have come from another era. At first the travelers wondered if anyone lived in the place till they heard shouts and crashes coming from further into the village. Ryoga managed to get there first, surprising Ranma though the directional sense of the lost boy had been getting better since his curse, and saw a group of hundreds of people watching two fighters attacking each other on a large log.

The fight didn't last long before a violet haired girl around Ranma's age knocked the other woman, at least Ranma thought it was a woman, high into the air to land with a loud thud a hundred feet away. The girl had barely turned around before she threw a weapon at the table Ranma had seen Genma sit down at. Violet hair streaming behind her the girl leapt from the log and landed by Ranma and Ryoga demanding something in Chinese.

"Um, sorry I don't speak Chinese." Ranma was getting worried with the way the girl was looking until what had to be the oldest person Ranma had ever seen came pogoing up on a long staff.

"I am cologne, my great granddaughter is asking why your pet is eating her prize?" Cologne wasn't a fool and could easily tell that all three of the beings in-front of her were cursed, the easiest to tell being the large seven foot tall black furred werewolf standing next to the much shorter red haired demoness. The werewolf was the most interesting, at seven foot tall he towered over all but the tallest of amazons, like Dowel, he had a shorter muzzle than an actual wolf and his arms were longer than a normal beings that size would be. 'Probably to allow him to run on all fours' the elder mused as she examined the double jointed legs and moved up to the thick chest and mane of black fur that seemed to make the head look larger.

Standing at a mere 5 foot 3 inches the demoness was a much less intimidating sight if one didn't know what to look for. The clawed fingers and golden eyes, surprisingly catlike with slit pupil instead of more wolflike, plus the small fangs would tell a experienced demon hunter that the girl was a powerful member of the royal wolf clans instead of a much lower wolf demon. She was surprisingly busty for a wolf demon and bore none of the normal arrogance a true demon would display which was as good a showing as anything that she was a human in demon guise. Pointed ears and a slash of black on her left cheek marked her as a royal wolf far down in the line of nobles.

While the two infront of her were obviously cursed the pandas actions actually could be mistaken as an actual panda, except every now and then it tried to use a utensil. "He aint a pet he's my pops." Ranma looked at the angry girl then turned to the old woman and decided to try and fix things "If I fight her and win would the prize then be mine?"

Cologne blinked in surprise at the girl's swift decision to join in the tournament but nodded watching as the girl jumped to the log before she could tell her of the dangers of an outsider joining without conditions set. The battle cologne knew was going to be short, what with shampoo tired from the rest of the tournament and not ready for another challenger.

The old woman watched the redheads moves as she dodged the shampoo's assault and couldn't help but admit that the girl was good. 360 year old eyes shifted to the ground as it trembled slightly, the old woman frowned as the trembling increased so much that everyone nearby was able to feel it. It became so bad that even the two on the log stopped fighting and looked around.

"Is it an earthquake?" The rumbling voice asking the question came from the werewolf and Cologne looked at him in surprise for a second before looking back at the ground "No I don't think…" The ground split upwards underneath the tip of her staff and then collapsed downwards into darkness taking the elder with it.

Ranma blinked in surprise as a perfect circular ten foot wide hole collapsed downwards taking the old woman with it when it went. She heard a shout from the girl next to her and leapt down to move closer as several others stopped the violet haired girl from leaping into the hole after the elder. She had barely gotten close when she had to scramble back clutching at her nose, Ryoga did the same. "Oh man that reeks!" She had only a moments warning before the elder erupted from the hole with a staff covered in black blood and shouting in Chinese before the hole was no longer empty.

The things were each around seven feet tall with a dark reddish tan skin that looked like hard leather. They had dual jointed legs with cloven hooves and three fingered hands ending in thick black claws. Thick chests bore a mixture of leather breastplates and elaborate steel plates but it was their faces which caused many to stumble their initial assault against the demons. They had thick tusks jutting up almost to their eyes and bore jaws full of sharp teeth, but it was the flames that burned in their eyes and mouths that caused some pull back. Their heads were topped by a set of thick horns that curved out then down till they stopped at the same level as their jaws, behind those horns was a second set of horns much thicker than the first, at least two feet thick, that curved out further and down complimenting the spike covered back. It made attacking them from behind extremely tricky if not impossible without a weapon or injuring oneself.

Ranma's analysis of the demon invaders took her only ten seconds yet even that was almost to long as the beasts cut through the first line of defense and attacked the amazons near Ranma and Ryoga. The cursed martial artists barely had time to realize what was happening before they were fighting for their lives.

* * *

Descriptions. 

Spring of drowned werewolf: A very happy, tragic if you were the wolf, spring created when a very vicious werewolf went on a rampage throughout the lands of the three tribes until he came across the sleeping form of a very beautiful wolf demon. Believing he could ravage the beauty he approached only to have the wolf demon begin to pummel him into unconsciousness. The battle raged for over twenty hours before the almost evenly matched opponents reached Jusenkyo and the demoness drowned the werewolf in a spring. Unlike normal werewolves the person drowned in this spring has no problem being in wolf form and does not have to worry about the feral state that other werewolves suffer from. They are even able to talk.

Spring of drowned female wolf demon: The spring, created when the musk royals attacked the weakened wolf demoness, has never been accessed by anyone but Ranma and it is somewhat a good thing. Ranma in demon form is more prone to violence and rash judgment though she has a sharp tactical mind she is willing to almost throw her life away before really starting to think of a plan of action. The remnants of the demons mind give Ranma a somewhat jaded view of the world and he begins to act somewhat different after receiving the curse itself. Though Ranma is still reluctant to take a life unless it is demonic or undead, his somewhat darker view of the world makes him more dangerous than he would be normally but he also is very loyal to those he considers allies. There is also a dark side to Ranma's curse that he knows nothing about but only manages to feel every no and then.

As for the curses, I'm of the type that believes in the springs making a person what they would have looked like had they been born that way. In Ranma's case he looks nothing like the actual demon that drowned there besides a few cosmetic similarities, he actually looks like what he would have looked like had he been born female from a Nodoka and Genma who were demons. Ryoga looks like what he would have looked like had he been born a werewolf and Genma looks as he would if he had been born a panda. Besides a few select springs I believe the springs act as such. I also like the springs mix idea so there is no cure in Jusenkyo for any of the curses.


	2. Chapter 2

Well here's chapter two. This chapter was a little tougher to write than I thought it would be. But after this I think my next chapter shouldn't be as hard. well hope this one came out okay.

As usual I don't own Ranma ½.

* * *

Feet moving swiftly over blackened ground Ranma dodged another of the demons, letting loose a punch that floored the creature and made way for three amazons to retreat to the front lines. The demons renewed their assault only to fall to blades and fists as the amazons began to push forward driving the demons back towards the hole they had emerged from.

Yellow eyes sparked and Ranma stumbled to a stop staring with glazed eyes at the hole for a second before leaping back. "GET BACK!" Her shout almost came too late as the feeling of approaching darkness reached its maximum and a large demon burst free of the hole. He looked exactly like the others expect that he was over ten foot tall and wore crimson steel plate armor that covered all but his head. The being drew a sword of black fire and cut into the forward lines of defense sending charred corpses flying and flattening nearby buildings.

"Bastard!" Ranma dropped down from her jump and kicked the demon in the head as hard as she could. The demons head twitched to the left and its hand lashed up catching the redhead's ankle and brought her down hard slamming her into the ground. The black fire sword rose only to be jerked back as a thick fingered hand closed on the demons wrist followed by the creature being lifted into the air and lobbed twenty feet away by an enraged werewolf.

"If anyone is gonna kill Saotome it's gonna be _me_!" The werewolf grabbed one of the giant challenge logs from the tournament and threw it at the creature only to have the massive trunk shatter against the things armor. The demon let loose a mirthful grunting laugh then leapt forward with a speed even Ranma could barely see and grabbed Ryoga's head, crushing his skull as he slammed him into the ground.

To Ranma the fight seemed to vanish as she stared at her friends crushed skull watching as the blood began to pool around him. She simply stood and stared as small black lightning's began to course through the air near her causing her to twitch slightly. The large demon gave another grunting laugh then leapt towards the young demoness. Cologne looked to the left after dispatching another group of the enemy only to notice the downed werecreature and the now glowing girl. She could have shouted that the boy would be fine as he was a werecreature but she didn't have time before another group engaged her and the other elders.

The demon, a larger and much more powerful breed than its other mirror based cousins brought forth a punch it knew had never been stopped before by any of its fellow class only to have the redhead raise a single hand and stop the punch using only one finger. "You have killed my friend." The head raised and the demon saw midnight black eyes staring out at him "die." The massive blast of dark violet energy tore through the demons cursed armor and vaporized his body as well as several large groups of other demons before the beam flickered out.

Ranma slumped as energy left her and left her staring in surprise at a swath of destruction in front of her that started as a small point right in front of her and stretched twenty feet wide at its largest point. She didn't get the chance to wonder what the hell had happened before Ryoga's body was lifted by a man in dark brown robes and she felt herself jerked away by the girl she had met on the challenge log. Seconds later the old woman she had seen earlier was pogoing next to her shouting at others who were grabbing weapons and artifacts and rushing from the village.

"What's goin on?" Ranma tried to focus on the retreat and not on her friends death but she kept stealing glances his way and feeling guiltily that she should have done something.

"We're retreating to Phoenix mountain." The elder noticed where the girl was looking and decided that it would do the girl good to know the truth, no reason to have her flying off the handle like that again, especially if she was going to throw blasts like that around when mad. "Don't worry about your friend; he's a were-creature he'll be healed from that in a couple hours." The old woman looked back and gave a curse as she saw an amazon warrior pulled down by some of the enemy that had begun to chase them.

Ten minutes of running later and Ranma heard one of the old women with the staffs yell something to several women who broke away and disappeared into the trees heading in different directions. Moments afterwards Ranma heard a scream from behind and looked back to see a woman being drug down by several demons but before she could leap back to help she was grabbed by the violet haired girl and pulled back. She managed to see one of the demons take the woman head off before the body was obscured by a pile of demons feasting on the dead woman's flesh.

"I could have helped her!" The memory of Ryoga's temporary demise still bright in her mind she would have shouted more but a staff cracked against her head and she found herself staring at the old woman again. "Don't be a fool! She would have been dead before you could have gotten halfway to her." Ranma was going to shout something back when she saw the look in the old woman's eyes. To someone who had been taught to read opponents since age five Cologne's feelings where plain as day, sadness, pain, depression, and underneath it all a burning rage directed at the murderous beasts that had harmed her people so plainly showing that Ranma knew not to challenge the elder.

The redhead heard a cry to the left and noticed a woman drop her seven year old to free up her arms to jab a spear into the head of a demon that died tearing her chest open. A second demon broke from the trees and pounced on the child who hacked at the creatures arms with a dagger.

Ranma was a martial artist, since as far back as she could remember her father had drilled into her the understanding that it was a martial artists duty to protect the innocent and the weak and help those in need. Even when her father stole or had had her steal he would talk about the duty of a martial artist as if saying it had absolved him of the crime. Ranma had never killed anyone or anything except animals for food and she had never felt the desire to go out of her way to hurt people, heck she didn't even cripple people that were bad people like that group of muggers she had ambushed in Paris. 'They're demons. Not like my cursed form, they only want to feed and slaughter' The thoughts flickered through her brain in a second and as the demon raised its hand to strike a finishing blow on the injured girl Ranma leapt across the distance grabbing the demons arm and then swinging it around in a circle before letting go sending it slamming through several trees and into a boulder.

Snatching up the injured girl the redhead almost lost her own head to another demon only to have the creature plucked up off the ground by a large woman and slammed into a tree as the villagers rushed passed it. Ranma noticed a black and white blur to the right of the crowed that punched several demons out and moved on to protect a group of amazons carrying some children. She glanced at the woman rushing along next to her and noticed it was the same one she had seen fighting with the violet haired girl earlier.

Ranma could feel the blood from the girl's torn side soaking through her silk shirt and wetting down her side as she continued to run. The amazons had managed to start a moving defense at the rear and sides of the group allowing the weaker members to stay in the interior of a circle of warriors capable of holding their own against the continual assaults.

The redhead noticed as they ran that the assaults grew less and less till finally stopping altogether allowing the villagers to run along at a steady pace with no hindrance. "What stopped them?" Her question to the old woman went unanswered for a short time as old woman pogoed along before she leapt to the redheads shoulder and rode along. "The farther we get from the hole they used to enter this dimension the weaker they get, though that will not last long." Cologne looked over her shoulder back the way they came and then turned to examine the path ahead again. "The longer the breach is open the farther the demons will be able to move outwards and they will begin to attack again, though we will reach phoenix mountain long before then."

TWELVE HOURS LATER

Ranma stumbled as she continued walking while carrying the girl, now bandaged, that she had rescued earlier. She glanced to the right for the hundredth time to make sure Ryoga, now living again, wasn't getting lost; the lost boy had been somewhat more subdued after his death and return to life but had still insulted Ranma a few times so she knew he was okay. If she had been rested she probably would have felt the watchful eyes that had been keeping watch for the last three hours.

The refugees from the amazon village came to a stop as they rounded a curve in the path on the mountain summit and came face to face with at least a hundred winged warriors being led by a dark haired lady with white wings. "Lord Saffron has been excepting you for some time now, elders follow me to meet with Lord Saffron, everyone else follow Masara to the healers."

Ranma was to tired to protest someone telling her what to do and followed the group inside the mountainside and through several corridors into a massive open space that extended upwards for the entire length of the mountain peak. There were balconies set at ten foot intervals but no visible way to get to them making it obvious that they had been designed for those who could fly. Several cables were strung from balcony to balcony and Ranma saw several small winged children riding devices across the cables as well as hundreds of people flying to and from different balconies.

"This way." The winged man pushed on a section of rock making it turn out of the way and open up to a staircase.

ONE HOUR LATER

Ranma sat silently by the bed of the girl holding the now cold hand and trying unsuccessfully not to cry as she saw again and again the amazons who had fallen in the village and on the run from their homes. The cries of the wounded filled the healers hall and she could tell that several people wanted her to move so they could remove the dead girls body to make way for more wounded.

Ryoga watched in surprise as Ranma started glowing a dark black and the tears running down the cursed martial artists face steamed away as she clenched her teeth and stared at the body in front of her. "I swear, I…I will get vengeance for this. On my honor as a martial artist I swear."

Ryoga finished drying hot water from his hair and carried the pail to Ranma dumping the water onto the demoness and leaving the black haired boy he remembered from before in her place. Ranma brushed hot water from his hair and placed the girls hand onto her chest before standing up and turning to Ryoga. "C'mon we're gonna train."

Binding Room.

Cologne and the two remaining elders entered the room that the woman Kiima had led them to and could only stare in awe at the setting. The rooms left wall was covered with a map of china done in exquisite detail with thousands of small glowing ruby's set all across the map. The two elders noticed that the Bayankala mountains and their surrounding areas, which included Jusenkyo, had almost eight stones in certain areas and the one placed in the center of the amazon village was no longer glowing. The center of the room was dominated by a massive table that had a detailed map of the mountains and surrounding area for at least a hundred miles.

The candles on the room's chandelier flickered slightly as the doors opened and allowed several people entry. "Ah I see you have interest in the wall of bindings, each of those stones represents a chained darkness that should never become free."

The three elders turned to see who had entered only to see a young man who was radiating unnatural warmth and the same woman from earlier. The two elders immediately bowed to the god-king of Jusenkyo only to have him gesture for them to approach the table. "We have no time for pleasantries. You were attacked by forces that should never have broken free of their prison, as well as brought a royal wolf demon into my mountain, I would know the reason for the demons presence."

"The demon is a cursed individual from Jusenkyo my lord, she bears no ill will towards anyone." Cologne spoke swiftly and looked closely at the map before looking at the phoenix narrowly "We would like to know our enemy, and how you knew of its existence."

"The forces you fought are merely mirrored forms; your enemy is a being you have heard of before, the demon king himself." The disgust in the man's voice and the way he shifted his gold feathered wings told the elders of his dislike for the being in question.

"Impossible, you yourself were part of the trinity of deities who destroyed the creature." Cologne had heard the legend many times and it always ended with Saffron and two others killing the demon king.

"If it had been that easy the others would still be here. We imprisoned him in an astral plane and sealed it believing he couldn't escape no matter how powerful he was." Saffron looked closely at the map frowning "I felt the breach made even here but I could not leave this place as I was needed to maintain the binding on several other beings. As it is I can not engage his entire army by myself or even with all of my forces and hope to succeed." He placed a crystal on the map to mark the amazon village and the breach into the astral plane.

"And the worst part is." The god-king turned to look at the wall "The energy wash is powerful enough to break the binding on at least two others that are near enough to be hit by it." The two elders turned to look at the wall and noticed that two of the stones were flickering wildly as if they were losing power. "Athena protect us all." Cologne said softly.

* * *

Descriptions

Shadow Ranma: Shown to exist only by the easily visible obsidian black eyes and a slight darkening of her skin this darker version of Ranma will only show herself when Ranma is in female form. She appears to be massively powerful and has an acute understanding of Ranma's demoness abilities. Unlike Ranma she is completely uncaring of the risks to herself by attacking large forces that she couldn't possibly defeat and will attack any enemy until either she is victorious or dead. She does not understand the idea of retreat and will actively pursue any enemy that tries to run from battle even if it means entering a trap to kill them.

Like Ranma she has a highly developed sense of honor and will protect her friends to the death. Her only problem is that her violent nature makes her fire off her most powerful attacks immediately into a fight which exhausts her staying power making her vanish into Ranma's mind once more allowing Ranma to retake control. Ranma remembers nothing of what Shadow Ranma does while she is awake and she will not show herself unless Ranma enters a state where his mind reaches an inability to cope with a current situation. Her existence is actually new, appearing only after Ranma gained his curse and is most probably caused by a minor remnant of the royal wolfs mind.

Shadow Buster Shot: Shadow Ranma's version of a shi shi Hokodan. While Ranma and Ryoga have no knowledge of how to fire ki blasts yet, shadow Ranma shows her remnant demon mind with the ability to fire a demon aura powered blast of dark energy capable of destroying, at full power, a full twelve city blocks.


	3. Chapter 3

Well here's chapter 3, this one was easier to write than last chapter and I think I have a good idea of the direction I'm trying to move now that I've kicked off the magical jailbreak.

As always I own nothing of Ranma 1/2.

* * *

Cologne moved slowly through the halls and balconies of the mountain fortress of the phoenix trying to puzzle out what the amazons were going to do now that they had been pushed from their homes. The warriors dispatched to warn the other villages had returned with the rest of her people, ten thousand amazons now packed the mountain along with the phoenix and had barely begun to settle in before a few fights broke out between them and the phoenix. The old woman sighed as she noticed another bout of training starting in a different room and made a mental note to talk to Kiima about finding a room large enough to begin setting up a full time training center to try and advance the amazon and phoenix warriors as fast as possible.

Old eyes watched several children running and playing and she made a silent vow for the hundredth time to protect the remains of her people or die trying. The problem was that the warriors may have been powerful enough to take on the lesser mirrored creatures but the more powerful forces that were no doubt already climbing from the breach would be to strong to handle by anyone but the strongest of fighters. It was obvious that she and the others needed to try and advance the training of the warriors in every secret technique that they knew. A plan had already started to form where amazons and phoenix could begin training in the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken and the Bakusai Tenketsu as well as moving advanced students onwards to the more powerful arts like the Splitting Cat Hairs and Hiryu Shoten Ha.

The only plus they had through this was that the demon king himself had expended a massive amount of power to tear the breach in dimensions. Even at his full strength he would not be able to cross the breach unless his forces gained a large enough power source for him to draw from. But even so he was able to send his forces through and with them being mirrored forms he could create thousands of them to assault the mountain.

Walking into a room pointed out by a phoenix guardsman she found herself watching two outsider boys fighting in the center of the room. Their styles were the largest indication of which cursed individual they had been earlier and were obvious to someone as old as her though she had to admit that several of the styles they used were supposedly dead schools of the art. The pigtailed boy had been the demoness, obvious in his movements and speed and the larger boy had been the werewolf, also obvious through his use of superior strength and more direct attacks.

Walking forward the elder interrupted the two boys sparring and rapped her staff lightly on the floor gaining their attention "You two need some true training."

"What are ya talking about? We're already the best." The pigtailed boy spoke with the usual arrogance of youth and cologne couldn't help but smile before she vanished from the sight of the two boys. Seconds later Ranma found himself flat on his back next to Ryoga with the old woman looking down at him smirking "You're about two hundred years to young to challenge me boy. And you have a lot to learn about fighting." The old woman walked to the doorway "If you want to learn follow me." The two boys looked at each other then scrambled after the old woman.

"The true martial arts isn't wholly about skill, it's also about power." The old woman looked at the two boys who were now watching the burning pile of wood in the room off the main cafeteria in the mountain. "You have to know your limits in power and skill if you want to advance past them. As it is you two are very powerful compared to normal fighters and probably even compared to normal grandmasters of the art but you are mere children to people like myself and Lord Saffron."

"Watch." She poured chestnuts into the fire then waited a second before her arms became streaking blurs to the two boys and she held up her hands showing the chestnuts and no burns on her skin. "This is the weakest of the amazon special techniques known as the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken." Throwing another batch of chestnuts into the fire she gestured for Ranma to try. The pigtailed boy frowned at the fire then made a grab for the chestnuts only to get his hand burned, on his fourth try he let lose a growl of annoyance and looked up at the old woman "My cursed form could do this, why do I need to learn it?" Ranma's anger was partially aimed at himself for failing so quickly but he also wanted to know why he couldn't move on to more powerful techniques right away.

"Yes your cursed form could do it, and if you wanted to remain in cursed form constantly for the entire conflict I suppose it's your decision." The old woman turned and began to walk away.

"Wait! I didn't say I wasn't gonna learn it, I'll have it down in no time just you wait and see!" The pigtailed warrior went back to burning his hands. While Ryoga watched trying to puzzle out how the move was done, he turned to the old woman. "Those demons in the village, what were they?"

"Followers of the demon king." Anger flickered across the old woman's face for a second then vanished; their losses could have been much greater. "Long ago in a time when humans were young and demons walked the world there was a powerful member of the demon world that began to refer to himself as the king of all demons." Her words were punctuated by pained cries from Ranma who, though he kept trying to grab the chestnuts, was also listening. "This lesser demon gained magical artifacts and allies making him powerful enough to challenge several of the elder demons and destroy them absorbing their power into himself. He gained strength swiftly and began to attack the few human settlements of the world though he was successfully held out of Egypt by the forces of the gods." She sat pulling her staff onto her lap and watched Ranma examining his arms.

"As his power grew he searched for a place to set up his empire and chose the area we now know as Jusendo as his place of residence. Once entrenched there he began strikes against the gods themselves and drove several into hiding within china and its surrounding areas. But he didn't expect the fractious gods to ally into a fighting force and so was unprepared for the battle that came to him." The old woman tossed a chestnut to bounce of off Ranma's head and looked into the fire. "Three great gods, including Saffron the king of phoenix mountain, attacked the demon king and battled with him for a full month before he fell to their combined might. While the story was always told that the three gods had slain the demon king I was newly informed by Lord Saffron that that is not the case. Instead they sealed him away in a prison, a prison from which he has torn an opening."

"Wait, are you saying that this mountain is ruled by a Kami?" Ranma asked forgetting about his burns for the moment and feeling a bit of shock. "Then why the heck didn't he come down and help when the village was attacked?" The boy had barely jumped to his feet before cologne cracked him on the head with her staff. "He had to stop other evils from escaping boy! He doesn't have the raw power needed to stop the demons on the mortal plain. Get back to training."

Cologne walked away from the room with at least knowledge of where she wanted to put the training room. 'That boy is too fast at learning things' the old woman's thoughts stayed on the pigtailed fighter that had managed, unconsciously while watching her and listening to the story, to grab a chestnut without getting burned. Even so he had only grabbed one and he would have to grab all of them before he would be able to advance.

Ranma had continued for a moment before letting Ryoga begin to try and had been sitting there for two hours before he suddenly had a thought. 'Where's pops?'

Binding Room

Saffron watched as one of the two flickering stones faded out and had to put more power into several others to make sure that the releases didn't start a cascade across all of china. He watched as the second flickering stone from earlier started to flicker more wildly and shuddered slightly "So it begins."

JUSENKYO

The guide shook his head as he watched the demons moving on the outskirts of Jusenkyo's wards against evil and was glad that his daughter Plum and his wife had gone to visit relatives in Hong Kong. The overweight man sat in front of the hut he used while by the springs and began to puff on his pipe when he felt a wind begin to slither its way across the springs. The pipe lowered as the springs pulsed with a soft golden glow then sent wisps of energy floating free and flowing across the ground and other springs heading for a cleft in the farthest cliff face from the hut.

The guide was panting for breath by the time he had finished his sprint through the springs to the cleft and merely watched for a moment as golden energy flowed around his ankles and feet and swept down the rock floor disappearing out of sight around a bend. The guide's sense of foreboding was getting worse and worse as he walked down the cleft through twists and turns until he reached the end and it opened up into a massive circular area of cliffs that looked down upon a large rock basin full of dark water. The golden glow was flowing over the water forming massive chains of golden light that snapped taught and stilled the churning waters.

Seconds later the chains strained then shattered and a figure burst free of the water with a shrieking thunderous roar that shattered rock nearby. A massive bone paw slammed down tearing through rock like a sword paper as the beast pulled itself free. The giant bone wings swept wide shattering more rock and the head swept forward turning to the side to fix the terrified guide with a single eye socket in which a dark red glow sprang to life. The head was massive with a single tooth being large than the guide himself the long snout was filled with many such teeth and two large horns swept forward from the back of the skull along the sides of the head to more than halfway up the length of the snout.

The terrified guide stumbled back a step only to trip and fall as something grabbed his ankle and tugged. A look down showed it to be a human skeleton dressed in rusted armor bearing a rearing lion on the breastplate. A quick kick and the guide was free to get to his feet and see the hundreds if not thousands of human skeletons pulling themselves free of the rock and standing before moving towards the cleft in the rock and the guide. The portly man turned and bolted hearing the thunderous crash of rock shattering behind him as he went.

Behind the guide the massive figure brought another set of massive claws down that shattered a small sign decayed with age reading 'May she rest forevermore, here lies the darkest of all the sky beasts Myara the Queen of Dragons.' With another thundering roar the undead dragon leapt skywards with a mighty push of her wings she cleared the cliffs and slammed down in the springs watching as the human rushed across and away from her she began the process of rejuvenation.

The guide had barely made it to his hut when he heard the loud crash and looked back to see streams of red energy leaving the springs to flow up into the clawed feet of the massive bone dragon. Before the guides horrified gaze tendons and veins began to slowly creep their way up the dragon's paws and he realized that the beast was going to use the spring's magic to revitalize herself back to her full power.

The guide knew he needed to get news of this to the phoenix king and the amazons, the only problem being that the dragon was close to the only easy exit to Jusenkyo and the guide needed to get out quick. He made a break for it dashing up the path and heading out only to hear a roar and turn to see the dragons massive skull filling his vision as she struck. The portly man flinched back knowing this was the end, his only thought was that his family was currently safe.

With a loud boom of shattering rock the dragons head was slammed into the ground and an eight foot tall minotaur jumped off of its head landing near the guide and grabbing a large boulder to throw at the creatures head. The boulder ricocheted off of the dragon's head and it pulled its skull free of the ground to glare at the beast that dared attack it, its sight pierced the curse to see the young human within and the dragon's eyes began to glow a darker red. The minotaur roared in pain as red energy flowed around it causing its form to twist and warp almost like the curse was shifting to something else before the dragon was distracted again.

A beam of white ki energy slammed into bones cracking them and sending pulses of energy flowing across the ribcage of the massive being. Even though she was bone the dragon queen could still feel some pain and let loose a roar before swinging around to view this new menace.

A young man of seventeen stood with two others flanking him his silver, blue hair rippling in the breeze still flowing through Jusenkyo he wore scaled armor and bore the dragon insignia marking the royal members of the musk dynasty. "This land belongs to the musk you will leave immediately or suffer my wrath." The cocky arrogant voice had barely finished echoing across the springs before the dragon swiped at the young men causing the three to scatter. The dragon focused on the musk prince due to the fact that she could sense the boy was cursed but also because he bore the blood of a dragon which made him much more dangerous than his compatriots. The dragon's jaws parted and black energy swirled into being forming a ball of darkness in the dragon's mouth before being fired out in a beam of dark energy right at the dragon prince.

"DRAGON STRIKE!"

Herb raised a hand firing his own blast back and straining to overcome the dragons power. The black energy began to push his own beam back and he brought his other had up to use his full power causing the white energy thrown by the prince to double in size and start to push the black energy back. The power struggle lasted for a few moments longer before the white energy punched through and blasted through the back of the dragons head bursting free and streaking upwards into the sky.

Another loud boom echoed through Jusenkyo as the dragons head then her body slammed to the ground followed by a soft thud of herb impacting the guides rain barrel and subsequently turning female. "Lord Herb!" Mint and Lime dashed to their prince and knelt next to her "We must return to my father and inform him of these events swiftly." Herb managed to get that much out before she blacked out. Picking up Herb Lime jumped away followed by Mint.

"Must leave this place for phoenix mountain honored customer." The guide said to the minotaur while watching the downed dragon carefully.

Neither of the retreating groups noticed the red glow that sprang up in the eye sockets of the fallen skull or the way the bleached bone began to meld together again. Both forces did however hear the thunderous roar of triumph that echoed through the valley and mountains as the dragon once again reared over Jusenkyo.

Deep in the forest a large boulder marked with the image of a large spider gained a web of cracks across its surface.

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Descriptions

Something about the demons I had forgotten to write last chapter

Mirrored form demons: a mirrored form demon is created through the use of a cursed mirror and a full fledged demon. It's a simple process 1. Take a demon, 2. Place demon in front of cursed mirror, 3. Have demon step aside and watch as army begins to march. Actually its slightly more difficult than that as each demon takes one hour to fully emerge from the mirror, for weaker demons, more powerful demons can take anywhere from one day to two months depending on class. The mirror would find it impossible to mirror the demon king or other very powerful demons but it can mirror middle to lower class demons.

Myara, queen of dragons: Hers is a long tale that I really don't want to try and put into story form, she is the unholy pairing of a god and demon dragon who were forced to copulate by the use of powerful magic being used by even more powerful deities. No one had any idea that Myara would be so strong at birth. She wasn't born in an egg as normal dragons are but tore her way from her mother and swiftly slew her father as well, raising to full growth in only a years time she was as powerful as many elder gods and rose dragon kind to a height of power never seen before or after and was only defeated by the combined might of over three hundred gods working together.

Her defeat didn't mean her death though and she slumbered for millions of years, sleeping through the time of the dinosaurs, and awakening to a world ruled by humans. Weakened significantly by the battle with the gods she was no stronger than a normal dragon her size would be and began to wreak destruction across the globe until she came across the lands of a powerful king and his sword. King Arthur began a crusade against the dragon queen that lasted twenty years and spanned a large portion of the globe before he ran her down in china and the combined armies of Arthur and several warlords, numbering in the thousands of men, attacked and defeated the queen. Fearing her rebirth the men chopped apart her body and carried the pieces to the largest lake near ancient grounds pounded by meteors. The dead of the army were magically sealed into the rock to forever watch over the dragons resting place.

It was the blood from the dragons hacked up body that infused the 1000 springs of Jusenkyo with their cursed qualities and due to this she can sense and cause pain to the cursed members of Jusenkyo while in their cursed form. It also appears she is able to alter the curses of those people as well. As she revitalizes herself to full life she will be once again alive but her strength will still only be that of a very powerful dragon meaning that she can match the lesser gods in strength but is measurably weaker than even the demon king.

Shadow dragon blast: a blast of dark magical energy thrown from Myara's mouth as a powerful beam attack. Myara's weakest energy attack, and the only one she is capable of using while still an undead entity.

Dragon strike: Attack learned by Herb, dragon prince of the musk, in his last month of training, it is his most powerful ability and can, at its most powerful, take the top off a mountain. (Irony that Herb's current most powerful attack barely matches a true dragon's weakest attack.)

Note: yes Herb is currently cursed but due to this conflict isn't going to be able to search for the kettle, not to mention I think I might use his curse to advance the story at some point. Herb is also slightly different in that I have him learning attacks that he didn't learn in the manga. He is training to ascend to the throne after his father dies.

2nd note: I follow the 'Tarou is somewhat honorable' belief and believe that if he saw someone being attacked, especially by a dragon the size a castle that he would aid in the fight. He's also not stupid and realized immediately that continuing to attack would be futile especially after the dragon took a ki blast without much harm.


	4. Chapter 4

Okay, here is chapter 4. This one is a little rushed actually and is only a little plot development. As it stands the next chapter will be a month long jump into the future showing how far Ranma and Ryoga have developed their skills as they begin their fighting against the demons. Ranma and Taro are not the best of friends and will fight quite often since for some reason Taro is attributing Happosai's supposed death to Ranma's family. Herb is as arrogant as ever and won't teach Ranma or Ryoga anything as he doesn't believe they have the ability to ever match him.

Thanks for the reviews and keep em coming, need to know what ya think of this thing.

I own nothing of Ranma 1/2 and never will, the only creatures is own are Elgass and Myara, and the Demon King as I came up with their backstory's on the fly.

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PHOENIX MOUNTAIN

Black hair rippled slightly in the wind as the pigtailed boy watched more wounded being brought into the mountain and listened to the warriors talking about the strangeness of the demons assault forces. Apparently the demons were only sending small assault forces against the defenders instead of the full force of their army, speculation was running in different directions from the demons fighting someone else to the demons not wanting to chance a full defeat before they had enough superior forces. Looking at the injured Ranma was starting to wonder how long the forces arrayed in the mountain could hold them off.

His senses told him Ryoga was approaching and he was actually glad the lost boy was going to try and train with him today. The two had worked out their differences with a fight late last night that had ended in a stalemate with Ranma explaining the reason he hadn't been able to be there on the fourth day, Genma had knocked him out and when he had woken up they were already on a ship to Tibet. The lost boy hadn't had to go far to find Genma as the older martial artist had been looking for Ranma and thus had begun another fight with Genma getting clobbered.

Lately Ranma hadn't been to happy with his father due to the fact that his old man had been hiding out instead of helping with the war effort and had actually been tried to get Ranma to sneak away with him. A short fight later and the older martial artist had abandoned the idea.

"About time you got up." Pushing himself to his feet Ranma turned and headed for the room cologne had showed them yesterday.

The two boys blinked and stared at the sight of the large room now dominated by almost one hundred fires and amazons at each fire trying to learn the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken technique. "You're going to fall behind at the rate you're training at boy." The old ghoul pogoed forward to watch Ranma closely then turned to Ryoga "you as well boy, work harder if you expect to become anything closely resembling a true warrior."

"…show her." Ranma muttered as he knelt by one of the unoccupied fires and began to train.

12 MILES FROM JUSENKYO

Rock cracked, then cracked more until finally with a loud cracking report the boulder with the spider mark shattered and sent shrapnel blasting outward into the trees and opening a large hole almost six foot wide. The dark pit beneath was still for a moment before a large hairy leg slipped out of the darkness and a shape pulled itself free and out onto the forest floor. The spider stood at five foot tall and was covered in short brown hairs that made it stand out amongst the forest greens. Only moments after the first another spider followed and another and another until almost one hundred large spiders stood upon the ground.

A group them turned and began to tear at the rock at the edge of the hole breaking it open more and more until the hole was quite a bit larger than before. Darkness shifted again and a leg four foot thick and covered in short black hairs slid out followed by more until the next spider, making the others look tiny by comparison, pulled itself free of the hole and. Unlike the other spiders this one only had two red glowing eyes and a mouth full of needle sharp teeth instead of fangs, the carapace of the spider wasn't fur covered but a shiny black armor like exterior that glistened in the morning sunlight.

The spider turned to her children and spoke in a whispery hissing tongue that sent the smaller creatures rushing into the trees to begin to spread out throughout the forest. With hundreds more spiders pouring from the hole behind her the spider rested after the ordeal of breaking the binding until she sensed approach. The spiders moved to protect their creator and had barely gotten into place before the forest erupted in a flurry of motion and demons began to pour into the clearing.

Demon forces impacted the leading spiders in an attack that was surprisingly effective given the spider's longer reach and more powerful overall strength. Evil fought evil, both forces wanted their leader to rule which meant that they had to wipe out the competition and destroy the enemy leader. The battle was going well for the demons until the large spider pushed herself up and moved forward tossing demons in every direction and tearing the heads off some of the more offensive ones. The massive spider watched as a larger version of the smaller demons came into view wearing a set of crimson plate mail and began to crush its way through the smaller spiders.

Giving a loud shriek of anger the giant spider strode over her children and confronted the beast. With a loud roar the demon leapt forward and slashed downwards with its axe only to have the weapon ricochet off of the black carapace of the spider who then proceeded to tear apart the demon swiftly and move on to other enemies. Seeing their filed commander destroyed the other demons fell back wishing they had been having better luck lately, first it was the skeletons following that massive dragon and now it was the spiders following that large spider. The field commanders had started to speak of how the lord was angry with the fact that his forces were being defeated by such paltry enemies.

1 MILE FROM SPIDER DEN

"Put me down idiot!" The shout from the dragon prince, currently princess, along with a strong punch forced Lime to drop the boy turned girl and stop himself to make sure his prince was okay.

Herb was having a very bad day, at first information had been sketchy on an attack against the amazons that had forced them to leave their homes. Then had come the information that dynasty's seer's had a vision of great evil in the pools of Jusenkyo and therefore Herb had been dispatched with his two guards to find out what had happened. The three had fought through a few weakling demons and then headed into Jusenkyo. Herb gave an angry growl as she remembered her fight with the ancient dragon that had taken up residence over her people's property.

The dragon prince leapt to the trees and began to travel swiftly for the edge of the musk lands by the expedient road of treetop jumping until she heard a startled cry from Mint. Spinning around she was surprised to see the warrior hanging upside down from a tree with a section of spider web wrapped around one foot. If her senses had bee any less developed she wouldn't have felt the strike, instead she dropped from the tree and kicked forward throwing a dagger that struck the webbing and dropped Mint to the ground.

"Lord Herb behind you!" Mint's shout caused Herb to spin around and drop under a strike that would have decapitated a lesser being and launched a kick that shattered the creature's carapace and sent it flying. The dragon prince found herself slowly staring up, up, and up some more into the twin red glowing eyes of a massive spider that had to be at least thirteen feet tall. "This really isn't my day." The prince muttered and found herself barely able to dodge a strike from one leg that turned a boulder into rock dust.

"FLYING SWORD OF THE DRAGON!"

The ki blade cut through the air and struck the side of the spider only to shatter instead of breaking through the carapace. The spider let loose an angry shriek and spun to face Herb while blue lightning's began to play across its armored form making it look to be in the middle of a lightning storm. Herb dodged back then blurred out of view with another shouted attack.

"SOARING DRAGON SPIRIT!"

The flying dragon prince bounced several ki blasts into the spider only to have them splash across the things carapace and dissipate harmlessly into the lightning's surrounding the spider. The beast shrugged them off and struck out at the prince catching her a glancing blow that sent her flying through several trees and into a boulder to be retrieved by Mint as the wolf-boy dashed by. Herb used Mint as a springboard and leapt into the air flying upwards then letting her flight end and plummeting downwards towards the spider impacting it and pushing it to the ground which let Lime slam a tree trunk into its head.

The spider shrugged off the hit and then seemed to crouch slightly causing the lightning's to flare and sending a spike of pain up Herb's leg causing the prince to cry out in pain. Herb tumbled from the spiders back only to be smacked by a leg again and driven downward creating a large crater in the solid rock. The fate of the dragon prince wasn't looking very bright, especially when Mint and Lime couldn't get close enough to aid in escaping from the spider.

"THUNDERBOLT CUT!"

A slim figure dropped from the treetops wielding a Zanbatou and bringing the nine foot blade downwards in a arc that slammed the massive blade onto the back of the massive spider shattering the carapace and exposing internal organs. The spider screeched in pain and stumbled to the left before collapsing allowing the figure that had struck it down to rush to Herb's side. "My lord, it is good that I have found you."

"Spice?" The surprise in the prince's voice was obvious as he looked at the musk female.

Short cut green hair rippled as the girls yellow eyes examined the prince to make sure he was okay before stepping aside to allow the men to assist the prince. The girl watched the guards fussing over the prince until they both got clobbered for their annoyance. The girl turned to watch the spider only to see it twitching and begin to push itself upright while the broken carapace healed swiftly to a solid shining black. "My lord!" Spice swept her zanbatou into attack position and leapt into the trees then into the air and plummeted downwards again.

"THUNDERBOLT CUT!"

With a loud ringing sound the massive blade ricocheted off of the spider's carapace and Spice found herself dodging several strikes until she could retreat to the others only to find them already falling back and retreating into the forest. The musk girl chased after them catching up at a section of collapsed cliff and decided that now would be a good time to impart her message to the prince before he got further from Phoenix mountain.

"My lord I bring news from the Emperor." She waited until the prince had finished bandaging a wound and pouring heated water from Lime's canteen onto himself before she continued. "The city and citadel have fallen under attack by the demons that have been roaming through the woods the last day. They are throwing large amounts of forces against the walls though the enchantments are holding for now." The girl kept a watchful eye on both of the princes guards as they kept a eye out of the rubble they were hiding in trying to spot if the spider had followed them.

"The Emperor wishes you to travel to Phoenix mountain and gain the aid of the phoenix and the amazons if they have survived the attacks." The girl watched the expression on lord Herb's face and knew that he was actually considering disobeying and heading back to aid in the defense of the city. His decision was easy though with his fathers orders and he quickly ordered Lime, Mint and Spice to get moving.

PHOENIX MOUNTAIN

1 DAY LATER.

Kiima frowned as she stared out at the sky and noticed several of the guards escorting something in to land on the same balcony that she herself was standing on. The captain of the guard had seen quite a lot in her life but a massive winged minotaur carrying the Jusenkyo guide wasn't something she believed she would ever see again. "We're sorry Lady Kiima but we intercepted this…um…creature and the Jusenkyo guide out at the edge of the sentry range. They appeared to be trying to get here my lady." The guards watched the captain and only departed when she gestured for them to leave.

"Honored phoenix lady, I must speak with Lord Saffron." The Guide looked extremely agitated and Kiima was about to ask him about the creature, most probably a Jusenkyo victim, when another group of gaurds came running in. "My Lady! The Musk prince Herb has arrived with several warriors and stats that it is imperative that he be allowed to speak with Lord Saffron!"

"More and more trouble." Kiima muttered, she just hoped this wasn't more bad news.

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Descriptions.

Soaring Dragon Spirit and Flying Sword of the Dragon are both cannon manga Herb attacks. In the Flying Sword of the Dragon Herb slashes his arm up to create a blade of ki to cut his opponents down, he used this attack to chop the top of the mountain open. In the Soaring Dragon Spirit the dragon prince fly's while bouncing ki blast off of the ground to hit his opponent from different directions making it hard to judge where the attack came from.

Spice: Spice is female musk, one of the few to be warriors and only allowed to be a warrior due the fact that her jaguar blood gives her strength equal to Lime's and speed beyond Mint's. She has short green hair and pointed ears with dark yellow eyes with slit pupils. She is considered a runt by musk standards and somewhat flat in the chest area which is also one of the reasons the men don't mind her being a warrior so much. Spice is still a musk female and is submissive to any Musk male and defer to any male she believes knows more than she does. While she is a master at using the zanbatou she also has claws that are powerful enough to tear through armor on the off chance she loses her sword.

Thunderbolt Cut: This attack is almost impossible to do with anything but a zanbatou due to the fact that one needs the weight of the blade to aid in the charging of the attack. The wielder uses the blade like a bolt of lightning to split their opponent down the center and it has been speculated by those that have seen Spice use the full powered version that the strike moves at the same speed as lightning and packs a punch just as powerful. A true master of the musk martial arts once stated that he saw Spice through a lightning bolt from her blade to impact a target a second before the blade itself reached the target, giving reason for the attacks massive strength, the man was believed to be drunk.

Elgass mistress of the dark: A demon spider created by a dark sorcerer by the effort of merging a crystal orb containing an enchanted spider web with his apprentice. The sorcerer didn't have much time to admire his handiwork before the now insane creature went on a rampage and destroyed the sorcerer's tower, not before torturing him slowly though. For years the spider remained hidden in the wilderness picking off anyone who got close to her domain until she was almost slain by a group of wandering knights. The spiders mind began to break free of its constraints and the evil being that arose was later referred to as the Mistress of the Dark. Seeking to advance her kind she stole into villages at night and abducted children no older than six and took them into the wild, once she had returned there she encased them in a webbing of her own design that began the work her few remaining dark magic's were capable of. Within two days the webbing would break and a new spider would emerge, while not as large as her nor nearly as powerful she had the beginnings of an army and continued to abduct children to add to her forces.

By the time the forces of the warlords of the time could ally against her she had an army within the thousands and began to crush her opposition. During this time Myara ruled the skies with her dragon's after her awakening and Elgass decided to make a deal with the massive beast. The dragon didn't take the deal with the type of seriousness that Elgass wanted and the spider had the few humans who worked for her send information to a king of the time about the lair of the dragon. Elgass began to slowly loose ground over the course of several hundred years and eventually retreated into the dark underground where she plotted her revenge on the mortals of the world. In a bid for dominance she summoned a female Satyr into her realm and demanded that the poor creature play a song to lure food to the spider armies so they wouldn't have to leave the safety of their lair.

The Satyr was terrified into playing the song given to her not realizing what she was causing to happen. The music was magically enhanced and swept across the land to nearby city of Merlain where it enthralled the entire population of children and led them from the city while putting their parents to sleep. The children numbered in the thousands and Elgass was able to increase her army to a level she had never had before and move against the surface world. The spider had made a tactical error, with the capture and transformation of an entire city's children the warlords allied into a force greater than any before them had ever brought to bear. Elgass's forces were crushed under the sheer raw amounts of manpower brought to bear against her and she found herself pushed back into the wilds of what today is china and pursued by the forces of the warlords.

In the end it took seven of the most powerful mages, including two dark wizards, to imprison the spider as none had the power to defeat her entirely. Unable to break the transformation the remaining spider legions where forced into the same prison as Elgass and were sealed away hopefully never to become free again.


	5. Chapter 5

Okay. Here's chapter 5. A little bit of Ranma fighting demons and other things happening. When I started this story I was aiming to make this a year long war though I'm not sure if I can get it to go that long as several parts of the story are starting to settle in good and the main section of the story, that involving the amazons, musk and phoenix, is going to start taking off with battles against the demons, spiders and undead. I suppose the story will go on as long as I manage to spread it out over as much time as I can make it. but as I said things are beginning to fall into place where I absolutely have to move certain things along.

Phew, alrighty, read and review and tell me what ya think.

I own nothing of Ranma ½ and never will.

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Forward: It has been a month and a half since the arrival of the musk prince and the Jusenkyo guide. In this time Ranma, Ryoga, and two hundred amazons have mastered the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken, the Hiryu Shoten Ha, and the Bakusai Tenketsu though the splitting cat hairs is a technique that has evaded most amazons and others. By this time the stalemate with the demons has been understood to stem from the demons sending most of their forces to fight Myara and Elgass who are amassing armies or fortifying positions of their own. 

The Chinese army has moved to the edge of the Bayankala mountains due to the stories of villages being destroyed and have begun to move slowly through the area trying to understand what is going on. Tarou has begun to aid due to the fact that his mother's village would be attacked once the demons were done with the three tribes and he also wants revenge on Myara for injuring him. Ranma, Ryoga, and several amazons who show great promise in the art have been given magical artifacts from the phoenix tribes vault to aid in the fighting of demons. Saffron has remained near the room of bindings to keep seals intact but believes that he can now begin to foray out himself to attack enemies. Especially as the demon king is sending larger and more powerful forces out to fight.

Genma is currently recovering from a beating from Tarou once Tarou learned that Genma and Soun had, allegedly, slain Happosai meaning that he couldn't get his name changed anymore. Several times during the last month the phoenix and amazon guards have detained Ranma when he tried to sneak out to aid in the fighting because, 'girls shouldn't have to fight these things' as he said, he took two days to recover from the bruising he received from the amazons. Ranma over the last month has been forced to admit that the amazon women warriors are extremely good fighters, some of them even matching him and Ryoga after their training was complete.

Ranma received a pair of tiger skin boots from the phoenix tribe as the artifact given to him, or rather her, as they would only work with Ranma's demon aura put out by his female side. The boots themselves had a padded underside like a real tigers paws and ended with several small claws at her toes, the tiger striped boots extended to her knees and ended in a cuff of white fur. While Ranma originally didn't want to wear them, due partially to the fact they were related to a cat, he swiftly learned that they would only appear in girl form and fade out in boy from and would grant his girl form a massive speed boost over his base speed. Due to the spreading darkness from the breach and the larger demons coming into the fray Ranma realized he would have to take all the boost he could get to win especially after seeing the grievously injured brought in time and time again only to be healed and sent back to the front lines.

Unfortunately Ryoga has gotten lost; the tribes at mount phoenix have lost a combined number of three hundred warriors counting the fifty who have been permanently crippled. And Ranma and others have been noticing the continually falling spirits of the remaining elders and phoenix tribesmen that are included in the war briefings.

Story start

One Tiger-skin clad leg kicked the air slowly as the redhead watched the demon forces tromping by underneath the tree she was hiding in heading towards the mountain to make a side strike against the defense forces guarding the mountain. The last twenty of the demon forces were gripping the ends of large chains that drug a large stone box almost seventeen feet tall and ten feet wide that was floating on the air behind them. 'Stupid Ryoga had to go and get lost.' Ranma gave another mental curse as she thought about the missing martial artist who should have been here helping her and the amazons 'Come on, come on come on!' A second after the last thought flickered through her mind a loud blaring horn echoed over the demon forces causing them to draw up short and with a triumphant cry Ranma dropped from her perch to get some long desired revenge on the bastards that had killed so many.

Impacting feet first Ranma drove one demon into the ground then bent backwards to avoid another's swipe. Bending further backwards she placed her hands on the ground and kicked up planting a foot into that demons chin launching it into its fellows causing it to drop the large chain it had been still holding in one hand. Kicking up a dust trail behind her she dashed into the forces arrayed against the amazon strike team throwing demons left and right and allowing her to get free to the other side of the conflict where Dowel was swinging her massive halberd and turning enemy forces into red smears on the ground.

Tarou slammed both hooves into the nearest two demons crushing them into a red paste and beginning to lay into the nearest enemies with massive swings that turned the recipients into shattered wrecks. The massive minotaur spun in time to see a large demon wearing red plate armor charging him and let fly with a massive punch that, surprisingly, only knocked the demon back slightly. Retaliating with a strong strike the demon almost knocked Tarou over backwards and caused the minotaur to cry out in pain before launching himself against the demon again.

Ranma found herself back to back with Shampoo against almost fifteen enemy until bladed chains swept down from the trees impaling ten of the demons and leaving the way clear for the two fighters to fall back and group up with other amazons. "Thanks Mousse!" Ranma shouted as she dodged another strike and hit with a knife hand causing the demon to stumble back choking before she hit it with an axe kick that buried it into the ground. Hearing a roar of pain from her left Ranma spun that direction in time to see Tarou stagger backwards after being struck by two red armor clad demons.

The two field commanders, each capable of commanding a force between fifty to one hundred demons, had allied against the large creature and were doing quite well until field commander number two was kicked through a tree and into a boulder. The demon jumped up only to find itself facing another demon only this one bore a simple black slash on her left cheek, marking her as a member of a royal demon clan.

"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken!"

The six hundred blows that impacted the red armor in only a second set off a loud ringing through the trees and bruised Ranma's hands but did little to the armor except lace it with a few cracks. Ducking barely in time to avoid getting her head torn off Ranma threw herself backwards and grabbed the nearest thing she could that she thought would hurt the demon…the floating stone box. The large creature didn't even get the chance to be surprised at the girls strength, when she jumped twelve feet up and brought the box downwards, because he became a crushed demon a moment later.

Panting the red haired demoness spun around to see the rest of the demons had been felled by the amazons and Tarou. The redhead tried to keep her lunch down at the sight of the dead demons and continually reminded herself that these creatures wanted to kill everyone on earth and would torture and slay even children for their own pleasure. It was still a small consolation when she realized she had been forced to kill. The strike team began to assemble to begin another hunt when there was a sound behind them; turning and watching in surprise they barely dove for cover when rock spikes came blasting free of the box Ranma had used as a demon crusher and the stone sides collapsed outwards.

The creature that stood slowly from the rubble was big, taller than Tarou even and covered in an emerald green carapace. The creature had a thick lower body with six legs and a slim joint that must have been like a waist that allowed the upper section of the body to rear up making the creature almost fifteen feet tall. The upper body was a conglomeration of three thick segments, with fourth small triangular one being the head, each segment tapering into a joint that was only half the segments width at its widest point, meaning that each joint was around three foot wide as compared to the six foot wide centers of the segments. The creatures upper body had four arms, two on the lower segment that ended in three long fingers tipped with sharp claws and two arms on the segment above that that ended in seven foot long serrated edged blades that the creature brandished at the strike team while letting out a angry hiss.

Two amazons went down before they even had a chance to know what hit them and Dowel's halberd simply ricocheted off of the carapace of the high level demon. But Dowel's assault gave Tarou and Ranma time to react to the creatures assault on their forces. The minotaur rushed in and planted a massive blow to the creatures side that cracked its carapace and sent in stumbling to the left even though it was held in place by its six legs. Ranma leapt up and used her downwards momentum to strike a blow at the demons head only to have it whip an arm up and grab her by the ankle smashing her to the ground and raising a scythe arm to slash at her. Dowel leapt up struck at her opponent.

"RAIN OF STEEL!"

Hundreds of blade strikes slammed into the demons head cracking the carapace and causing the creature to let out a keening wail before slashing Dowel from the sky with one scythe arm. Dowel disappeared in a blur of motion allowing a scythe arm to cleave the rock she would have landed on and Ranma skidded to a stop setting the giant woman down and checking her for injury. It was only Dowel's heavier armor that had kept her from being sliced apart, even so she had taken a deep gash in her side and her armor was almost cleaved open. The young demoness turned and rushed back to the fight slamming a full strength punch into the center segment of the demons upper body only to have her arm break through the outer carapace to get stuck within the now jagged edges.

With a shriek of rage the demon reached down and grabbed the girl tearing her free of its armored shell it lifted her up and swept its blade arm back readying to bring it down on her only to have a massive spike of golden flame blast the blade arm free of the body. Large gold feathered wings glinting in the light Saffron floated down to settle gently on a rock and glare at the large demon.

"I would put her down now if I were you." The phoenix god strode from the rock towards the demon, which slammed Ranma into the rocky ground stunning her, and leapt at the kami trying to impale him with its blade. Tarou and others watched in surprise as the remaining scythe arm melted as it was shoved at Saffron's chest followed by the rest of the creature bursting into flames and collapsing into ash in seconds.

"Take your wounded back to the mountain; I will clear the rest of the path ahead of here." Saffron rose into the air and streaked away blasting groups of demons and giving aid to the few amazon and phoenix patrols that were out that far.

MANY MILES FROM PHOENIX MOUNTAIN, CLOSE TO MUSK DYNASTY BORDERS

Near Dusk

Elgass skittered through the trees watching for anymore demons as she approached what she hoped would be a valuable pawn in the coming war against both the dragon queen Myara, the demons that roamed the countryside, and the strange beings that now inhabited this area. The massive spider looked closely at the large stone carved with the symbol of a nest of snakes that covered the entrance of a cave; gathering her power she lashed out with a hail of blue lightning's that began to chip away at the rock until it was completely destroyed.

Light shone through the cave as the sun began to set and played across the desiccated husk of a corpse resting against the back wall of the short alcove set behind the stone and the bones of the right hand twitched slightly. The corpse began to shudder then jerk in and thrash around as its lower jaw opened in a soundless scream, the scream became a lot less soundless as the beings body finished regenerating and the wail echoed from the mountains, from the musk lands to Phoenix Mountain. The naked body, now easily identifiable as a beautiful woman became clothed in velvet dress that hugged her body tightly and dark green eyes opened to survey the opening of her prison.

In the fading sunlight it appeared as though the woman's hair actually moved as she stood and walked to the exit of her prison and surveyed the spiders currently standing outside. Completely within the sunlight it was obvious that her hair did move as it was comprised of small snakes that hissed and bared their fangs at Elgass and her young. "I am Medusa, you have released me? Why?" The features of a high born noble twisted in distaste at she listened too the spider.

"I have need of your powers witch. Serve me and I shall grant you what ever you wish." The hissing rumbling voice that spoke from the demon spiders maw didn't actually match the movements of the creatures mouth but then it was a demon spider capable of its own magic's so that wasn't a surprise.

"I serve none, be they mortal, demon, god, or astral being." Medusa looked coldly upon the spider infront of her recalling the ancient tales she had read of the spider while researching her own magic. "Much less a being who raises its army from the bodies of children."

"YOU DARE!" The thunderous roar that came from the demon spider shook the mountainside and Medusa took an involuntary step back in surprise "I freed you! Very well, if you will not serve then your essence shall feed my power!" Letting loose a shriek she sent twelve spiders leaping towards the snake haired woman who let out a snort of annoyance. A light flashed from her eyes and stone spiders crashed to the ground in front of her and all down the mountainside spiders froze in place as they turned to stone. Medusa almost congratulated herself until she saw the demon spider was still alive and was now rushing up the mountain towards her. "Your power cannot harm me witch!" The spider leapt and Medusa took to the air using her magic to get out of the immediate reach of the mistress of the dark; the snake haired woman glared down at the being below her "If it is a fight you wish then it is a fight you shall have!"

"HELLION!"

Sweeping one arm up above her head a spark of dark blood red light burst into being on her hand and the ground split as a massive hand punched up through the rock and pulled the rest of the being upwards after it. Elgass recognized the creature immediately as it was an exact duplicate of the creatures she had fought earlier only this one was almost twenty feet tall and wore black plate armor inscribed with dark runes of power. This was no simple mirrored demon but a high class demon that no mirror could duplicate.

With a hissing incantation Elgass increased her size to match the demon and the two titans clashed shaking the mountain with their strikes and shattering rock with careless blows. Rearing back the massive spider let loose a flurry of blows that shattered armor and sent the demon reeling but was unable to follow up as four fireballs slammed into her back courtesy of the flying witch, something that allowed the summoned demon to grab the spider and try to lift her off the ground so it could slam her down. Digging in purchase with six legs the spider threw the demon into the mountain shattering the rock face and sending the mountain crashing down on top of the summoned being. Before she could gloat and turn to kill the annoying witch the falling rubble crashed down over her as well ricocheting off of her black armored carapace burying her under massive boulders and other rock.

Medusa smirked at the rubble pile that had once been a mountain even though she knew that it would take more than that to kill that creature and sped off through the air to Jusenkyo to offer her services to the dragon queen. In exchange for a few things of course.

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Descriptions 

Boots of the Tigress: Boots crafted from the hide of a demon cat they bear with them strong enchantments that give the user extreme speed in short bursts that also allows the user to jump higher than they normally could. They were created from the hide of a powerful demon cat that once terrorized the phoenix mountain area; after it was dispatched by lord Saffron it was skinned and its hide was crafted into several items of power, one set of these being the boots, another was a set of tiger skin wrist cuffs that were lost to time.

Rain of Steel: Dowel's technique that has her leap into the air and rain blows down at Amaguriken speeds with the intent to slash her opponent into small itty bitty pieces. This attack is usually fatal and is only used in battle with a sharp weapon, preferably a halberd as it has the needed reach. This technique has been used in sparring sessions but only if Dowel has a blunt object to use.

Mantis: Powerful high class demon unable to be duplicated this creature's hide is almost impenetrable to bladed weapons as it merely shunts them to the side or weathers the strike unharmed. A martial artist of powerful enough standing can crack the carapace of a mantis but would have an extremely hard time breaking through, though other demons of a higher power find they are capable of penetrating its carapace they soon find out that causing enough damage to take out one of the creatures, with their highly redundant organ system, is very difficult.

Medusa: Medusa was once a musk sorceress before the musk started to oppress the women of their dynasty. In fact she was the empress of the musk as they had only placed women on the throne in several hundred years. In a bid to protect her people from a dark evil she created a spell that fused her with a powerful mystic snake which gave her the ability to turn beings to stone with a glance and increases her already powerful magic's to levels not seen in almost a thousand years. Unfortunately it also drove her into a sort of insanity and she decided that to save her people she would seal them all in stone and rule over a empire of statues. The only saving grace was that she seemed incapable of harming children and would go out of her way to protect them from all harm.

It took twelve mages and an entire army of musk warriors numbering in the thousands to defeat the sorceress and imprison her body behind an enchanted stone as they feared her words "Death's dark shawl fears the light of the sun." The warriors sealed her corpse in a cave hoping sunlight never touched her form lest she rise again from the grave to try and retake control of the Musk. It was after this incident, and several others involving female sorceresses and several princesses who slew their brothers to try to take the throne that the Musk began to oppress the females of their dynasty.

Hellion: A summoning spell created by Medusa during the war with her people that summons an alpha level demon to her aid. The demon is a specialized type that will not die if defeated, it will merely return to the hell planes to await another call thusly the summoner can summon the demon countless times in a row only having to worry about their power pool.

Note: a bit about Ranma's strength in this story verses cannon Ranma. In the manga female Ranma was capable, at the beginning of the manga, of lifting ryoga's umbrella in one arm, Akane in the other, and leaping to a rooftop a ways away. Male Ranma was capable of shattering a boulder, thrown by Tarou, that had to be at least several ton worth of weight and didn't seem to have any trouble at all doing it. By the time Ranma faced Saffron he was much much stronger, something I have seen miswritten in countless fics. He was hitting Saffron with a three ton boulder, statement made by Ryoga, and Ryoga stated that that was light compared to what Ranma normally hit him and mousse with.

Going by this I have tried to come up with a chart of Ranma's strength both manga and this fic.

Manga Ranma, post Saffron.

Male Ranma: Max tonnage able to swing around in a fight… around 10 to 12 ton.

Max lifting tonnage, no swinging just lifting… around 15 to 17 ton

Female Ranma: Max swinging tonnage… 7 to 9 ton.

Max Lifting tonnage… 11 to 13 ton.

It is my belief, and from seeing things in the manga that Female Ranma is weaker than male Ranma but not by the massive amount some people make her out to be.

Manga Ranma, beginning of series.

Male Ranma: Max swinging tonnage… 2 to 4 ton

Max lifting tonnage…7 to 9 ton.

Female Ranma: Max swinging tonnage…1 to 2 ton (possibly only one ton total.)

Max lifting tonnage…3 to 4 ton (Possibly only 3 ton total.)

My Fic Ranma at current time.

Already knows Amaguriken, Hiryu Shoten Ha, and Bakusai Tenketsu

Male Ranma: Max swinging tonnage… 7 to 9 ton

Max Lifting tonnage… 10 to 13 ton

Female Ranma: Max swinging tonnage…17 to 20 ton.

Max lifting tonnage… 21 to 25 ton.

Shadow Ranma (Is only female): Max swinging tonnage…34 to 40 ton

Max lifting tonnage…48 to 52 ton.

Ryoga, from what I've seen while reading seems to be around 2 times or more Ranma's brute strength and only gets stronger as the series goes on. So yes Ryoga is still stronger than Ranma, werewolf Ryoga is even stronger than demoness Ranma, though he falls short of shadow Ranma. I cant help but think of the strengths of the characters as it has always been a pet peeve of mine to see people write Akane as stronger than Ranma or others in brute strength, even though Akane can NOT punch through solid stone, something even shampoo can do, and shampoo once beat Akane in an arm wrestling match even though Akane didn't know about it till shampoo broke out of the game thing, this was the super soba noodle storyline. From reading the manga and watching the series it's fairly obvious that the only a few main characters are weaker brute strength wise than Akane, Ukyo and Kuno are two of them, though they outclass Akane in skill by a wide margin.


	6. Chapter 6

Well this is chapter 6. sheesh, took me long enough to get this chapter done and im still not completely happy with the fight scenes. Well I have decided that when shadow Ranma is in control she will simply be referred to as shadow. This chapter sets what I hope is the intro into the beginning of the larger fights, meaning Medusa and Myara will be targets of the alliance next, now that's gonna be a big fight, probably have to set aside a large chunk of a chapter just for what I have thought up for the fight with Myara. Also as a slight bit of info about the next chapter, Ryoga finally manages to return, with a few tricks up his sleeves, and his direction problem will finally get fixed.

As usual I own nothing of Ranma 1/2

OLOEOPIA: Shadow Ranma is somewhat strange, she is capable, capable of course doesnt mean for sure,of showing herself when Ranma falls too deeply into any dark emotion, rage, hatred, fear, etc, also she seems to show when ranma is close to dieing with no one there to save him. Unlike Ranma who doesnt remember anything the shadow does while shes awake, shadow knows everything that ranma knows and has a fairly quick temper when ranma is in danger.

thanks for the reviews.

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It was a dream. She was sure of that, knowing that she had gone to bed as a guy but waking in a strange hallway as a girl was a reason too believe that this was all a dream and had nothing to do with real life. But if that was true then why did she have the weird feeling that something big was happening and she just hadn't found out what it was? The hallway's walls looked to be made of dark obsidian stone that were covered in deep gouges that looked to have been made by large claws.

Things got weirder when she found a door that opened into a giant library stretching off into the distance and a seemingly younger version of herself, this one male, that was reading a scroll that Ranma recognized as being one she had found in pop's pack several weeks before. It was some kind of ki attack made by a man named Happosai but Ranma had only managed to blast herself across the room every time she tried to use it. The boy at the table didn't look up and Ranma retreated out into the hallway.

The trip through what Ranma was now supposing was a very weird dream was getting on her nerves until she came to another section of hallway that looked to be in the worst shape of them all. The stone walls were torn to shreds and near the end of the hallway there was a set of double doors made from steel, only the doors were in shreds on the floor. Sliding along the wall Ranma entered the room slowly to find that there was only a small light hanging in the center that left most of the room dark. The loud clanking of chains drew Ranma's attention to what she believed was the left wall.

Sitting at the edge of the darkness was a massive humanoid cat that was bound wrist, ankle, neck, and waist with massive chains that led back into the darkness. Shuddering in fear Ranma retreated from the cat towards the far side of the room only to bump into something else causing her to spin around hoping she wasn't about to see another cat creature. What she saw was the strangest thing she had seen since she had entered into this strange place that she was starting to think was starting to feel more and more real.

Her head was down and the slight rise and fall of her chest told Ranma that she was probably in some kind of deep sleep. She was taller than Ranma was coming in at five foot seven inches compared to Ranma's five foot three inches and seemed to be proportioned a little better overall than Ranma herself was. Her hair was a dark blood red with black highlights and she wore it free instead of binding it like Ranma liked to tie hers. The strange girl had claws longer than Ranma's and though, like Ranma, she didn't look muscled the martial artist had a feeling that this girl was stronger than her by quite a ways.

Ranma hesitated to touch the sleeping girl due to the manner of her restraint, like the cat she was bound in chains though several broken chains lay at her feet. Unlike the cat though the girl was almost covered in chains that seemed to drape her form to hold her in place even two small ones wrapped around a white furred wolf tail that the girl was sporting. Slowly though Ranma reached up and forward and placed her hand on the dark-skinned girls cheek hoping to learn something at least. Ranma gave a startled cry as the girls head jerked up and black eyes snapped open "NOW!" And Ranma's world fell away underneath her.

Waking with a start the pigtailed boy jumped to his feet and dashed for the nearest balcony that gave him a view out over the valley and allowed him to see in the direction Jusenkyo was. It didn't take more than a moment for him to understand why he had woken feeling like something big was happening due to the brilliant light that flared down in the valley. A large sphere of red energy rushed up into the sky and began to spin until it was a disk that let of streamers of energy that cascaded down to the ground and began to spin with the disk until a dome of red energy created a massive shield around Jusenkyo.

"Myara is fortifying her position due to the heightened demon attacks, it also gives her the chance to search in peace for a way to seal the breach created by the demon king." Saffron strode forward to glare out at the dome of energy.

"Can it be penetrated?" Ranma could feel the power output all the way from Jusenkyo and wondered how the dragon was capable of putting that much energy out on a constant basis.

"It's not her energy, its Jusenkyo's power so it would be vulnerable to other magic. Even though Jusenkyo formed from her innate powers flowing into the springs, the springs themselves gained their own kind of power over the years and would not give it up willingly." Saffron turned to look at the boy "It's been two weeks since the last major attack on the mountain due mainly to the demon kings forces being split trying to fight everyone at once. But the demon king has a bonus that we don't have, an unending supply of fighters because of his ability to mirror the grunts of his forces."

Both martial artists turned to look towards the exit of the valley as they heard the distant boom's and saw the flashes of battle. "They are fools to fight that way; it is a battle they cannot win."

EDGE OF TRIBES LAND AND BEGINNING OF CHINESE TERRITORY

2 HOURS AFTER DAWN

The roar of heavy caliber machine guns echoed from rocks and the rushing demon advance stumbled as the lesser numbers dropped making way for the larger version that also fell after sustained fire from the heavy fifty cal machine guns. A group of red armored demons broke the cover of the trees and charged the front lines only to be intercepted by a tank round that shattered the ground and threw their broken bodies in different directions.

"We need more support!" The commanding general stumbled as the ground shook from an explosion off to his left. "Air support if it is feasible!"

The soldiers let out a cheer as more and more of the demons were blasted apart due to the increasingly higher number of tanks that were rolling in to aid in the fighting. The demons may have been giving the soldiers trouble up to now but the soldiers now had tanks to back them up. The next wave of demons disappeared in a set of large explosions that tore up the demons and the ground they were rushing across.

The cheers and heightened morale were short lived as a beam of yellow energy rushed its way from the shadows of the forest edge and impacted a tank vaporizing the armor plating in the direct beam and turning the metal in a five foot radius around the hole into a molten state the tank exploded a second later. The loud clicking was the first sign that they had a new enemy and the exposure of that enemy a second later dropped the soldier's morale significantly. This enemy seemed to be flesh from the waist up with light orange skin and two arms ending in a single hooked claw instead of a hand, their head was just as strange as it looked to be human sized with a mop of dark greasy hair but the face, while human form, was nothing but a featureless mask of orange flesh. From the waist down the demon was metal, a type of red steel that had four jointed spider like legs with needle-sharp tips that allowed it to dig into rock and help it along as it moved towards the tanks. Set directly into the center of its chest was a yellow jewel; the reason for it being there became abundantly clear seconds later.

The jewel in the chest of the demon began to glow gaining brilliant light then let that light fly in a beam of energy that detonated another tank in a single shot. Fifty cal and heavier guns turned and opened up on the creature only to have a glowing shield appear flaring around it and protecting it from all the incoming fire from the soldiers. The shield showed no problems handling the firepower until the tanks turned on it and began to unload their payloads onto it. The first three rounds barely rocked the demon back and allowed the creature to blast another tank, but by the fifth the shield was growing duller and duller in its flares of light until the seventh round blasted through and tore the creature into small chunks.

The soldiers let out a cheer as they saw the other demons falter when the creature was destroyed and they renewed their assault until they began to hear clicks coming from all along the front lines. In one brilliant flash twelve tanks vanished from sight and the tank killers rushed from the forest to engage the enemies of their king.

PHOENIX MOUNTAIN

NEAR NOON

"We have little choice in the matter now." Saffron paced through the room then turned to look at the map covered table. "Myara has made her move and with the shield in place she doesn't need to worry about enemy movements within her staging ground. This will allow her to raise a force unimpeded by demons or Elgass's spiders."

"The release of Medusa will be dealt with by the musk, she is our problem." Herb stated glaring at the map and wondering if summoning more fighters from his father's kingdom would be prudent before attacking the witch.

"Don't be foolish boy! The snake witch is most probably allying with one of the major players which would give her a powerful advantage if you attacked her." Lotion glared at the dragon prince for a moment then turned back to the map "We should leave the dragon alone for now and concentrate our efforts on either closing the breach or defeating the demon king himself."

"Closing the breach is not possible." The phoenix god tapped the place in the amazon village that bore the portal. "The breach was created by the demon kings power therefore it's a part of his energy the only way to close it is to destroy the demon king himself. And that is impossible at our current power, to even the scores more I would need the Gekkaja. With the twin staff's of ascension, the staff of ice, and the staff of fire, the Kinjakan, my power would be greatly increased upon the astral plane where we would have to fight the demon king."

"Unfortunately the Gekkaja was stolen from Jusendo almost four thousand years ago and no one has ever found it." Kiima said frowning "The Phoenix Guard has spent many years searching for it but finding nothing, we believe that the thief may have hidden it somewhere in Jusenkyo or the nearby mountains…" Anything else that she would have stated was cut off as the entire mountain shook and a strange whistling cry echoed through the room.

The people in the room rushed to a wall that magically melted back to reveal a balcony with which they could look out over the valley and what they saw left them speechless. Striding free of the crimson dome of energy was a skeleton thirty feet tall wearing black rune engraved armor, and it was striding straight towards Phoenix mountain.

"So Myara decides that it's truly time to strike at us, that armor looks demonic in origin, most probably it was summoned into existence by the snake witch. Kiima rally the guard!" Saffron leapt from the balcony flying towards the monster with the Kinjakan in one hand, behind him the mountain came to life as people bolted for the exits and rushed towards the creature to try and save the mountain.

20 MINUTES LATER

Stone shattered as Ranma slammed through a boulder followed by Saffron as the massive skeleton tossed the two through the air. Herb cracked one of the leg bones of the massive skeleton only to have it heal immediately and launch a kick that was so fast the dragon prince couldn't dodge it.

"Why the heck is that thing so damn fast!" Ranma snarled as he pulled himself from a stream running from a crack in the mountain.

Turning Ranma saw the massive monster close its mouth again with a loud crunch letting twin streams of blood flow down its lower jaw. The thing had been eating warriors ever since it had arrived and not only Ranma had noticed that every time it did it's healing from injury seemed to increase as if it was using the life essences of the warriors to fuel its own power.

"THUNDERBOLT CUT!"

The slash of the Zanbatou ricocheted off of the shoulder guard of the armor and the skeleton managed to get in a strike that sent the girl flying. The large bone creature opened its mouth and blasted out a beam of red energy that threw the god-king through several trees and left him impaled on an ancient rock spike. Herb took to the air and flew over the creature to launch attacks at it from above giving Ranma his only sixth view of the dragon prince's flight technique. While Ranma knew he couldn't fly the technique finally gave him the insight he needed to finish what his subconscious had been working on for quite a while.

Ranma had known the abilities of ki for some time and though he had tried to master a ki technique that Genma had nearly killed himself trying to master at one time during their training he had always failed. He had found the technique when his father had left his pack lying around in the bunk room shared by several warriors, Ranma included, and Ranma had been trying for weeks to master it. The only problem was that Ranma had never really had someone to watch use their ki in an attack that Ranma really had the time to watch and Herb wouldn't teach Ranma how to use a ki attack. With his subconscious working overtime trying to figure it out and finally getting to see Herb's use of ki Ranma finally had something to go on.

Ranma did understand one thing though, the ki abilities he used seemed to be based on his emotions, something Herb didn't seem dependant on, which made his current emotion something important. The young martial artist brought both hands up in front of him, fingers spread and one hand set behind the other, he pushed his aura to its maximum and then shoved the energy into his hands. This time he made sure to leave himself some aura and keep the energy connected to his own aura so as to make sure it wouldn't detonate prematurely.

"Happo Star Blast!"

The star of crimson energy flashed upwards and impacted into the center of the creature's armor sending out a shockwave that nearly blew Herb from the air and caused Ranma to collapse after the use of almost all his energy. The Skeleton didn't wait for anyone to recover and snagged Ranma from were he lay on the ground believing that it could get rid of a powerful opponent quickly. Saffron had finally gotten himself free of the rock and fired a blast of flame that dispersed harmlessly across the armor plating of the creature, even the Kinjakan's ring had failed to do more than cut deep gashes in the armor.

The martial artist was tired and thus he was unable to break free of the skeletons grip as he was raised towards the things mouth and tossed inside. He could hear the shouts of others outside as they tried to damage the skeleton more and he realized he was going to die here unable to get free as the massive mouth started to sweep shut. Blood from already eaten warriors ran across the solid bone of the lower jaw, unlike a normal skull the lower jaw had a solid plate of bone where it would normally be open and the upper jaw was covered in needle sharp teeth.

To many emotions, rage at the death of people Ranma considered friends, hatred of the dragon that had summoned this creature, fear at his impending death, the emotions charged out of control. I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna DIE! Ranma felt something cold splash him and looked down to see some of the blood had rushed to the side of the mouth he was in…it was just cold enough. "Not today." She spoke the words coldly as she swept a fist covered in black energy up and brought it down on the bottom of the skull with enough force to shatter bone and drop her from the skull. She kicked off of the armor and landed on a shoulder guard before leaping upwards.

The large skeleton swatted several fighters away and struck Kiima from the air turning its attention on the three fighters currently in the air.

"Flying Sword of the Dragon!"

The ki blade carved a trench near the temple of the skeleton causing it to roar in rage and strike at the dragon prince who was only saved by Saffron catching him before he could hit the mountain. Shadow peaked out her jump and began to fall slowly as she gathered energy sweeping her arm back and gathering a swirling mass of dark energy around it. She had to hand it to those amazons to invent a tornado attack capable of being used by any martial arts fighter of a certain caliber, the lucky thing for her was a perfect understanding of every attack Ranma had ever learned plus the few fuzzy indistinct memories of her own. This was a fusion of one of Ranma's attacks and something else she was sure she had seen somewhere.

"Shadow Dragon Dance!"

She gave a simple straight punch angled at the skeleton and six swirling masses of black energy burst from her arm arching outwards slightly they swept in and hammered the black armor, four against its chest and two against its knees the dragon headed tornados of black energy tore through the armor and shredded bone blasting the shattered wreck back against the mountain to fall into dust and bone shards. All except for the skull which slowly began to shift its form into a smaller version of the skeleton, at least until shadow landed and walked up to it raising her hand.

"Shadow Buster Shot!"

The black energy tore through the skull and reduced it to ash leaving everyone watching the demoness warily as she turned to watch everyone around her for a moment before the black eyes faded to yellow and Ranma collapsed unconscious.

* * *

Descriptions. 

Happo Star Blast: The upgraded version of Happosai's firecracker attack, and the true attack that Happosai used on a training trip with Genma and Soun. Genma found the scroll for it buried in some of the masters old things and tried to master the technique only to almost blow himself up. The attack creates a star-like crimson energy bomb that detonates on contact with anything, even the ki user who threw it, thusly the technique has to be anchored to the wielders ki aura to stabilize the attack until the user wants to throw it.

Shadow Dragon Dance: Shadow Ranma's variation of a Hiryu Shoten Ha. She creates up to a maximum of six four foot wide tornados with dragon heads that can hit her opponent from any angle she wish's, even from behind them. The attack is energy intensive but because shadow Ranma's power rises as Ranma's does she gains the ability to last longer in fights and through out more powerful attacks. The dragons dance is a armor breaking attack meant to shatter armor and utterly destroy the flesh underneath, in this case it powdered the bones of the skeleton.

Gigas: Created in the first war of the gods over twelve billion years ago when the universe was still young these creatures were made in the trillions and outfitted with enchanted armor to be used as cannon fodder against the other godly creations. The skeletons were incapable of feeling pain and could be extremely powerful dependant upon their power level or the type of armor. The secret of their creation was lost but Myara was able to find six of the creatures hidden away in a stasis chamber and found a way to secret them away into a small pocket dimension. With the right armor the creatures would be invincible in the current day to the martial artists of the musk and phoenix mountain, fortunately for them said armor was all destroyed long ago and is impossible to recreate without a god-forge, of which the only remaining one is constantly guarded by a army fire giants imbued with the powers of the gods. Meaning Myara has a better chance of flying to moon as a normal dragon than getting her claws on the forge, essentially that means she doesn't have a snowballs chance in hell.


	7. Chapter 7

ITS CHAPTER 7. took me long enough.

Alright, some might be annoyed and I'm sorry but my muse smacked me and Ryoga aint here yet, in fact at my current rate it will be another chapter yet before I reach stuff with Myara due to new circumstances and that means another chapter yet before Ryoga returns to Jusenkyo. Hope you like this chapter as I started and deleted it two times before getting it to what I hope is a good thing. I was originally going to simply continue this chapter until I got to where I wanted to be but I think that would have put this chapter at somewhere over twelve thousand words and I decided it would be best to break it up into two chapters instead. Don't think that means I have the second part of this written yet that will be, hopefully, next week. I've had to work on Sundays for the last few weeks so it slowed me down some, but that should be over now and I can get back to writing lots on Sundays.

Thanks for the reviews. Hope I get more, this few might be enough to deter a lesser writer. But I shall prevail! Besides I cant move on to the next story in the line if I don't finish this one.

* * *

Softness sliding against bare skin told her that she was in a bed instead of on the ground, or dead, which was were she was expecting to be; this led to her attempt to wake up completely. Slim fingers slid across her face and rubbed at her eyes trying to work the stinging out of them as sunlight poured across her face forcing her to wake completely. Ranma slowly shifted to a sitting position and sat staring at the wall for a moment trying to wait for her brain to stop moving like molasses in winter, she wasn't having much luck. 

Tugging a sheet from the bed around her naked figure she pushed herself to her feet and shambled to the large dresser in corner that was sitting against the wall with a large mirror hanging over it. It wasn't until she saw herself that she realized that things must have changed for the better once she had blacked out, considering that she was still alive and apparently uninjured. Slim fingers slid through crimson hair and tugged several strands of ash grey hair forward for study, she couldn't figure out much about why she had some odd colored hair except that it seemed to be slowly returning to its normal red.

A quick examination of the room was enough to see that it wasn't hers as she had normally bunked in a room with twelve other people and this was a single bedroom with furniture to store clothes in. A search through the nearby drawers in the dresser found a stash of her clothes and she quickly tugged on some boxers, a pair of her baggy black silk pants and a sleeveless black silk shirt which she belted at the waist with a gold sash that matched the gold ties on the shirt. A little concentration phased in the tiger-skin boots that she wore to increase her speed and surprisingly she felt a little of her strength flow back with their appearance.

She couldn't help but groan at her still pale appearance and sickly looks though "I look like shit."

"Maybe, but then that is a price a person pays when they use up all their ki and then use their life-force to power an attack." Ranma spun to confront the old ghoul and almost fell over from her continued weakness earning a snort of amusement from Cologne "You should have known better than to use your life-force in an attack after what we have taught you and others." The elder watched the confusion on Ranma's face and nodded as if confirming some hidden deduction "I would be very annoyed with you boy, if I thought it was actually you who had done it."

Ranma was confused and showed it in her expression as she rested against the dresser but then decided to ask some questions of her own "Did we beat that thing? Why am I in this room? How long have I been here? And what are ya talking about saying I didn't, but did do something?" The expression on the elders face seemed to state she was trying to decide to clobber Ranma for so many questions or whether to answer them all, apparently she decided the latter.

"Follow me, we will talk on the way to the war room, there's a meeting there soon and I was going to check on you before we went that way." The old woman pogoed out of the room with Ranma letting a few small streams of ki enter her body to bolster her strength. "As for that _thing, _yes we beat it, it's a very old creation called a Gigas and it would have caused a much greater problem for our forces if you hadn't trashed it. You were in that room because we needed a place to keep you were we could look after you and hopefully aid you in recovery if need be." The elder pogoed to another level and watched as Ranma called upon the power of her boots to jump there instead of her, currently miniscule, ki reserves. "As for the time spent in that room, well that is the problem; you should know that using life-force isn't like using ki in that ki can be replenished with a short rest whereas life-force takes much, much longer to regenerate. You were in there unmoving for one month."

"A MONTH!" Ranma's shout echoed through the great hall and she almost screwed up her next jump due to her shock.

"And that isn't all child, about this attack you did yet didn't do…" Cologne looked to the stunned martial artist and knew this was going to be hard for someone who had trained their body to always be under their control.

5 MINUTES LATER

OUTSIDE ROOM OF BINDINGS

Ranma leaned against the wall staring at the doors to the room of bindings also referred to as a war room now that the fights in Jusenkyo had branched out so large. She could barely believe what the old ghoul had told her about this _other her_ that showed herself every now and then to cause trouble. The young demoness probably wouldn't have believed Cologne if she hadn't described a girl that looked almost just like the one in her dream, though this one apparently had lighter colored hair, not as dark skin, shorter claws and no tail.

Finally deciding she had felt sorry for herself long enough she pushed the doors open and strode into the room to hear Saffron starting the meeting. The people in the room where a surprise to Ranma as she knew that Tarou and Herb didn't get along very well and had even had several of their fights broken up by Kiima. Not that Ranma got along very well with Tarou or the dragon prince as both were extremely arrogant to a level that even Ranma at her worst couldn't compete with.

"Alright now that we're all here we can get to work on this problem and have it solved before we move onto our other problems. What I mean is that we will finally be putting a stop to Myara and her forces before they secure areas that allow them unimpeded access to Phoenix Mountain." Saffron turned to point to Jusenkyo "As everyone here knows Myara is approaching the completion of her rejuvenation process and as such has pulled the majority of her forces back to Jusenkyo to try and bolster the power they grant to her shield."

Ranma almost let loose a curse as she thought of the amount of demons and spiders the phoenix forces would have to fight through just to get to that shield and breach it. "The problem is greater than many of you know, we know now that Myara has access to more of the Gigas than the one she sent here. Two of the ancient creatures were sent to assault the amazon village to try and secure the breach for Myara, those two were promptly destroyed as the demons have begun to field their larger members and force us, the musk, Myara, Elgass, and the Chinese army into retreat."

"Attacks on us have been light from the three threats mainly due to a standard of mutual hatred that all the dark forces have which is causing them to try and annihilate each other. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for us they are keeping each other so busy they have only sent raiding parties against us for some time, but we can't expect that to hold out." Saffron pointed to a village several miles from the edge of the tribes land. "Elgass managed to catch the children of this village and slaughter the adults, there was at least a hundred children in that village alone and they have now been used to bolster her forces, and there has been evidence of other villages falling as well."

"Quite frankly people, we are going to lose if we simply stay in one place and keep waiting for the enemies to come to us." Kiima looked at everyone in the room hoping that they would all understand her message.

"This is why we have decided to eliminate Myara completely on the instant of her ascension to mortality from undeath, this will give us an almost uncontested route straight to the musk held lands and allow us to link our forces so we can move on Elgass and eliminate her next. The Chinese army, surprisingly, has been holding their own against the lesser demons but taking some heavy losses taking out the larger ones and we believe that the elimination of Elgass would give us a corridor to link with them as well allowing us to breach the demon beachhead and take the breach, which would give us access to the demon king himself." Saffron listened to the murmurs of disquiet among the people in the room and understood immediately what they were worried about "Yes I know we have taken heavy losses just battling the raiding forces but with the Musk and the army aiding us we would be strong enough to take the breach. The only other way would be to find an entrance to the astral plane the demon king lives on that bypasses the demon forces guarding the breach and I know of no such entrance."

"So how do we deal with Myara? She's an ancient from what I've read and has some way to influence the Jusenkyo curses that people have." Herb looked at the map with a frown and thought again of Medusa "Not to mention that she seems to have Medusa working alongside her."

"That is one of the problems, she is a red dragon and thus is immune to my flames, at least in the here and now, if this was an astral plane and my power was at its height then it would be a different matter but at my current power I would need help to be able to harm her." Saffron looked at the Kinjakan resting against the wall "To Breach Myara's shield and find out anything of importance about the demon king and Elgass we are sending a force to the Fallen Seer in her mountain temple."

"The Fallen Seer will know everything we need to breach the shield Myara has constructed around Jusenkyo; since a party is going to have to seek her out for a way to breach the Jusenkyo shield they can also ask if she will give information about the Gekkaja." Saffron turned to look at everyone in the room "This is a small ground force only as trying to fly to the Seer's mountain is merely asking for a messy death. A small force will make the trek so as not to attract undue attention to itself, I won't make this sound to easy it's most probably going to be an extremely hard venture to undertake so we are sending only the best."

SIX DAYS LATER

"Only the best they consider expendable." Ranma muttered as he leaned back to look into the fire while thinking back on the meeting. In the end it had been Ranma, Spice, Shampoo, and Mousse.

"Shampoo my love…" The rest of the sentence ended in mumblings and a futile reach in shampoo's general direction as the nearly blind martial artist rolled over in his sleep.

"Stupid Mousse…" Shampoo's answer to mousse's words was a bon bori absently lobbed in the direction of the other sleeper, the attack missed and both continued in their happy dreams.

Shadows created by the fire flickered off of the surrounding trees and the side of the cliff as Ranma kept a watch out for anything trying to sneak up on them in their trek to the fallen Seer's temple. According to the old ghoul the temple was two weeks journey from Phoenix Mountain, when the snows were off the mountain, the snows were heavy now which meant things would take longer. The group had been lucky so far in its hiding from demon patrols and once from a group of spiders, though keeping mousse from jumping into a fight had been difficult Ranma had finally gotten him to understand they needed to hide from the demons.

Jerking awake to a loud crashing noise Ranma realized he had done that one thing a guard should never do…fall asleep. The crashing was getting closer and Ranma could now hear the guttural rumblings of demon speech interspersed with a few, nearly mangled beyond recognition, human words.

"UP! ATTACK! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" Ranma followed this with a kick in Mousse's general direction just before the woods exploded with movement in their direction. Ranma intercepted the first demon just as it reached the camp and swept its legs out from underneath it toppling it to its back before leaping on its head coming down hard and snapping its neck. The martial artist found himself snagged by another that lifted him from the ground and glared at him with flaming eyes before trying to impale him with a horn. The cursed boy hit the ground as a bladed chain whipped out to wrap around the creatures neck then pull tight sawing the things head clean off allowing Ranma to escape.

Shampoo was a nearly whirlwind of motion in a knot of demons cutting them to ribbons with her swords and getting support every now and then from Mousse who was both helping everyone else and fighting his own demon group. The entrance of two red armored demons into the fray turned the tables for a moment before spice engaged both of them, her massive zanbatou cracking their armor and sending them staggering. Ranma leapt into the air and landed a kick to the back of the head of one demon that drove it face first into the rock at the edge of the cliff. The fight would have continued if a beam of yellow energy hadn't come flying out of the trees and impacted dead center on Spice's zanbatou.

The metal of the zanbatou glowed a dim red that moved towards white, protective runes began to fail as the metal slagged. Luckily the beam cut out before the sword gave out completely and a creature came out of the trees walking on four spider-like legs that propelled it forward swiftly.

"Happo Star Blast!"

The blast impacted a shield long before it would have actually hit the creature and it retaliated with a beam that Ranma barely managed to dodge, even so he felt the massive heat generated by it as it went past. 'Heat!' the creature was radiating it at a large level, Ranma began to run around the demon until he reached a point he believed he couldn't move any closer without hitting the shield.

"Hiryu Shoten Ha!"

The tornado that roared upwards plucked demons from the ground and hurled them skywards but the orange creature dug its legs into the rock and held steady, at least as long as the rock stayed attached to the ground. The tornado was still rushing upwards when Ranma rushed out from the base of it and towards the others shouting for them to grab their gear and get moving, hopefully they could begin to climb the mountain before their enemies got caught up.

FOUR DAYS LATER

Snow crunched as Ranma's tiger skin boots came down into thick drifts as she continued to push her way through the howling blizzard that was keeping her from seeing two feet in front of her. The group had kept itself together with an unbladed chain of Mousse's tied to each of their waists and it was a tug on that chain from behind that drew Ranma's attention to Spice who had collapsed against the rock face they were detouring around. Ranma tugged the chain calling Mousse and Shampoo back while she readjusted her fur covered clothing that they had been issued by the quartermaster of phoenix guard.

"What's the problem!" Her shout was barely heard over the howling wind.

"I just…need some time…to rest!" Spice leaned heavily against stone and Ranma turned to tell Shampoo and Mousse the news when she noticed a slight glimmer to her left.

Fingers brushed snow away from stone and revealed a long crack that dim light was shining out of. The demoness put her hands on the stone and pushed causing it to shift on its center as if it had large pins allowing it to swing inward with a grating rumble that caused Spice to jump back in surprise and collapse into a snow drift. The stone had been pushed far enough to reveal a lighted passageway that had been hidden behind it, the group didn't waist a second and Ranma pushed the massive stone back into place after they had entered.

The hallway was dimly lit by amber stones set in the wall at intervals that were glowing softly and lighting what looked to have been an ancient mined out tunnel. The group looked around slowly and cautiously hoping that whatever might be in the place was less dangerous than the demons that had been only one step behind them ever since the base of the mountain. "Well, I think ya have the time ya need to rest." Ranma sat down to try and get some rest herself after their almost two day solid trek through snow central.

2 HOURS LATER

The group had managed to rest for an hour before beginning to move again, they had been trudging through the tunnel for an hour and hadn't found anything until they made a last turn and found themselves at the entrance to a massive cavern that looked to have been built by giants.

Twisting and turning throughout the massive cavern were ruby colored crystal pathways of giant size that led to huge doors and past massive gears and braziers still burning with flame. The stone of the cavern looked to have been carved by a master stone cutter as it was covered with images of titanic battles and large feasts.

"A fire giant stronghold." The whispered awe in Shampoo's voice told Ranma all she needed to know, which was that this might be a dangerous place. Ranma strode to the edge of the sinuous crystal bridge and stepped out turning to look back only to see that the hole she had come out of was tiny and set in what looked to be the base of a step which led to a platform with to giant doors set into it. She blinked in confusion and looked at the tunnel they had entered in then at the step that led back the way they had come.

"That's not possible. There wasn't any stone above us outside and that would be the only way for this to be above the tunnel." The martial artist looked to Shampoo when she giggled "This is a fire giant stronghold, it doesn't exist on the same plain of existence as the normal world, it must have been breached by some enchantment long ago."

Ranma was about to comment on how nice and warm it was in the place until she looked down and found herself staring down at a bubbling flow of lava far below the bridges. The red hot liquid rock formed a lake in some areas and rushed over stone and metal to flow through the bottom of the room. The cursed boy shivered slightly thinking about what that stuff could do to any one of them and looked back to see that the others had joined her and Shampoo out on the bridge.

After packing the winter clothes away into their packs the four headed across the bridge to the far side of the cavern at a steady run. The massive doors were open and in fact it looked like the center of the door had been hacked open with an axe or other large sharp object. The four had a high jump to the level the door was at and then another steady run down a long red stone hallway that had darker red splashes stained into the crystal layering the floor, it wasn't until they reached the room at the end of the hallway that they realized what the darker red was.

The room was obviously made for the giants that would normally have walked these hallways but it was now filled with destroyed furniture and several, very impressive skeletons that lay slumped around the room. Ranma had to admit that the giants had definitely been big, if what she saw here was an average sized fire giant then the Gigas would barely have reached the giants knee. It was also the obvious answer to why they were forced to run everywhere if they wanted to get anywhere quickly.

Things didn't get better as they followed a path of destruction through the massive fortress finding nothing but dead giants at every turn. The armor the giants wore was a simple, and practical, slate grey plate metal that Ranma's claws couldn't even put a scratch on, her ki blasts couldn't even put a scorch mark on the metal, Shampoo stated that was only natural given that it was capable of being dunked in molten rock with no ill affects. If Shampoo was right then Ranma wanted to side with Spice's question of what the hell was capable of shredding the armor and killing the titans that wore it.

They finally got their answer to that question when they walked into a room almost as large as the first cavern but this one had a solid floor and the remains of a massive throne on the far side of the room. Skeletons lay everywhere, their torn armor showing shredded bone, this room was different than the others in that its floor was also littered with the remains of thousands of mantis's and other demons as well as the remains of twenty Gigas in mangled golden armor that lay against one wall.

The shattered room with its broken stone tables and chairs and destroyed throne was a testament to the fighting that had gone on in the room but it was the scene on the far side of the room that drew the fours attention. It was a simple two figures but it was the size of those figures that caught the attention. One was a fire giant, a fire giant that was twice as large as the largest they had seen putting him in at well over 200 feet tall, and wielding a massive sword that's blade was as tall as the normal giants. Said sword was impaled through the head of what looked to be a humongous mantis, that outsized its opponent by at least an extra fifty feet and bore a black carapace instead of a green one.

Ranma shivered slightly as she felt a small tingle rush down her spine and cursed as she had only felt that when something was seriously wrong. A quick look around as Spice hopped up the massive fire lord's skeleton and then rushed along the massive blade to look at the head of the demon told Ranma what she was feeling. Everything in the room was decayed away, from the fire giants and the fire lord to the mantis's which were little more than husks laying on the ground; even the Gigas bones where yellowed and cracked with age. A simple look told her everything she needed to know, the black carapace mantis wasn't decayed at all even though it's head was pinned to a wall by the fire lords sword.

Spice reached for the nearest part of the mantis's head.

The tingle turned to a light burning.

A massive red eye snapped open and focused on Spice and a shrieking roar echoed through the fortress as the mantis reached up and tore the blade from its head letting it drop to the floor with a thunderous clanging that set Ranma clutching at her ears and screaming in pain.

"This is not good." Somehow, in the middle of the worst situation any of them had found themselves in Mousse had managed the understatement of the year with a perfectly calm voice.

* * *

(hehe I think I managed a cliffhanger for once) 

Descriptions:

Fallen Seer: Truthfully, little is known of the seer except that she enjoys her solitude and that all flying forces approaching her mountain are met with a swift, and painful, death. The legends about the seer are numerous and confusing as they contradict each other in places. One legend states that the seer is a representation of the universe itself and that she can never die as she is a part of the universe, thus she knows all the secrets the universe does. Another legend states that she is the mother of all the first pantheon of gods and goddesses and that they banished her after she allowed the mortals free will. Another legend states that she is the child of a being simply known as Marrow, the legends about that being are even more numerous than the seer's and one known would give ample reason why the seer lives alone.

The truth is a hard thing to come by when the seer herself refuses to tell anyone the truth of her birth or what her name is. The seer knows all, sees all, and will give this information to all, but the price of her information is considered very high, the price is, simply, that one know the absoluteTRUTH. What the seer see's cannot be changed no matter what precautions are taken, no matter what risks are taken, when the seer gives a prediction it is absolute. Many have stated another legend that states that the future of someone is free and mobile until one sees the seer and then what she sees becomes what will happen.

The seer is simply the seer and all who travel to see her understand that they do so at their own risk and are willing to chance it on the chance that they can get the information they seek. Legend is what everyone has to go on and there are two more legends associated with the seer, two legends that have been remembered long after many others had fallen away to dust.

The first legend is of a man who managed to slip out of the absolute future the seer had seen for him. A young hunter once wandered into the seer's dilapidated temple believing it was abandoned and desiring to hide from a storm he settled in for a wait. It didn't take long for him to find out that he was not alone and even less time to find out who it was that he shared company with. The young man was afraid and told the woman that he wanted nothing of hers and sought no future knowledge or foretelling of fate, the woman had simply laughed and told him that he would only receive such if he truly wanted it.

As the time passed and the storm refused to let up the man got more and more restless and finally the woman asked him why he was in such a hurry to leave. By the look within her eyes he knew that she already knew the answer so he told her of his village and the attack a group of evil men where going to launch upon it. The woman told him he need merely leave and travel to his home and save it if he truly wanted to do such. Unable to stand it anymore the man grabbed his gear and prepared to leave only to have the woman turn her back to him and speak softly 'your end shall come on the spear of great evil that will destroy your most precious treasure.'

The man spoke no word as he rushed from the temple and down the mountain through the blinding snow and across the forests to his village, his most precious treasure. There the fight had already progressed and he entered the fray in the hopes of saving his home, the enemy soon learned to fear the powerful hunter and the wail of fear they sent out drew their most powerful fighter. The battle was fierce and both sides watched intently to see who would be victorious, though the hunter was powerful the spear wielder was stronger and with a mighty heave he knocked the young mans sword aside and struck at the hunters chest. In that instant the hunter remembered what the woman had said and with a mighty shout that echoed to the mountains he cried 'I did not ask anything of yours!' With a thunderous crack the spear shattered upon his bare chest and the spear point flipped back impaling the eye of the enemy warrior. With a great cry of terror the enemy fled and the village was spared, it is the only tale of one cheating the seer of her prediction that has endured to this day.

The second legend is simple; the seer foresaw the end of all things. It was an ancient legend stating that the king of all demons would rise from the ashes of his old defeat and strike down those opposing him and rise to dominance over the world. No one at the time knew who the king of demons was and many have prayed that this too is a prediction that can be overcome much as the hunter cheated the seer of her other prediction.

The king shall rise and the three will fall

The wolf, the dragon, and the phoenix shall die by his hands

The lost one shall never leave the mountain alive

For this is absolute and can not be changed

The king shall hold dominion of the world

And nothing shall stand in his way

This foretelling was stated by the seer in the rare occasion that she entered a city, within small sects around the world there are still those who remember and pray that this foretelling can be beaten somehow and the world saved from the king of demons. Considering her track record the sects don't hold out much hope of her being wrong twice.

Black Mantis: The ruler of the mantis demon clan is somewhat mysterious, due mainly to his disappearance thousands of years ago, he bows in will to no one, not even the demon king though many have stated this is foolish as the demon king outclasses him in power. In a bid to possibly defeat the demon king when he would eventually return the black mantis assaulted several fire giant strongholds in search of the gods-forge in hopes of creating an entire army of mantis demons wearing the golden armor of the gods. He eventually made the tactical error of assaulting a fortress watched over by a minor fire lord and his forces fell to the might of the giants though he managed to take them out as well. Due to the mantis's ability to survive seemingly lethal wounds and the black mantis's ability to survive significantly more lethal wounds than his tiny kindred, tiny to him anyway, he managed to survive having his head impaled to the wall of the throne room. Why he awakened when Spice approached is as yet unknown.

Fire giants: Massive creatures ranging in height from 120 feet to 300 feet the giants are a force to be reckoned with even when weakened by magical attacks which is what the black mantis used; even so the giants took out millions of the black mantis's forces before falling to the magical forces arrayed against them. Though the fire giants considered the fire lord of the stronghold to be large he isn't the largest fire giant, that esteemed position belongs to the fire giant king who is considered unnaturally tall and comes in at 500 feet tall, he is the only fire giant to pass three hundred feet and is also the giant who holds the key to the gods-forge.

The fire giants are immune to lava and other hot environments, oft times their red skin and sharp teeth got them misidentified by mortals as Rogous giants who attend fire pits within the demon realms, this was considered a massive insult to fire giants who are the children of the gods and not related at all to the bastard children of the fire titans. The fire giants are one of the last remaining groups who existed during the first gods war and survived through the second, third, fourth, and fifth and final gods wars. During the fifth gods war they took their place as demi-gods who were feared by even some of the more powerful gods. The fire giant king is rumored to be an actual god by the name of Lenmure who was stated to have forced the gods who later became the Norse gods into hiding and told them that their plan of ragnarok would not be tolerated and not allowed.


	8. Chapter 8

Whew Chapter 8 completed.

This one was delayed due to internet trouble and a fact of sheer laziness as I've begun to play Grandia 3 meaning my time was monopolized. As such, not sure if this chapter is up to snuff but it's the best I can do right now with work, and the fact that im trying to watch all the buffy the vampire slayer seasons one after another, and grandia 3 all taking time. But I wont slow to much as my computer is working fine and my internet connection is back so I should begin to write quick again.

Thanks for the reviews, hopefully this will get better as it goes along, as while I write this story keeps getting larger and larger in my head. Hehe when I started this it was merely to write a background for the Ranma of my other story so I could continue with that story, which I now know I'm going to have to rewrite the first chapters of that when I get to it again. When I started this I believed it would most probably be six chapters max now I'm not sure when it's going to reach an end but it isn't soon. There are some interesting things for Ranma to see yet, the source of Jusendo and Jusenkyo's power being only one of them. Hope you continue to enjoy it. hopefully my next chapter will be back up to what I consider normal.

As always I own nothing of Ranma ½

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Sweat dripped falling to the stone floor with a light splatter as Ranma crouched behind the fallen stone pillar trying to stay out of sight of the giant mantis that was currently standing in the center of the room. The mantis had moved away from the wall and was currently standing completely still with its eyes closed and the massive hole through its head slowly healing closed. The redhead was more tolerant to extremes in temperatures than the others but even she was starting to feel the heat that permeated the entire stronghold and it was most probably even worse for Shampoo and Mousse than it was for her.

A flash of violet hair and white clothes and the amazon warrior was kneeling next to Ranma and peeking out at the massive black behemoth that still wasn't moving. Shampoo's baggy white pants and shirt had both been snow white when they had first entered the stronghold but now bore a layer of red dust covering them and the gold edged steel breastplate and shoulder guards. The two watched the creature for a moment until they saw Mousse across the room rushing past several downed columns towards where the sword had landed, most probably looking for Spice, Ranma let her ki senses flow out over the room.

Red eyes snapped open and the mantis turned Ranma and Shampoo's direction swinging one lower arm around to point at the rubble. The demoness tackled Shampoo not a moment to soon as a black beam of energy slashed through several columns and tore into the wall behind them leaving a deep gouge in the red stone. Ranma waited until the twin crashes of falling columns died down before moving to look out at the mantis again and finding it standing as before with its eyes closed and healing itself.

"It must have some way of sensing even minor ki use; we'll slip around the rubble and behind the throne to get to Mousse and Spice." Shampoo waited for Ranma to agree before moving off with the redhead following.

The two figures flitted from shadow to shadow and hid behind both rubble and skeletons to keep out of the view of the creature, by doing it that way it took them nearly ten minutes to get across the room to Mousse's position. Ranma darted forward and knelt beside Mousse who was trying to pull Spice's unconscious form from under the sword. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see that Spice's legs had gotten crushed by the sword blade and continued to be pinned there.

"How do we get her out, the sword is way too heavy for us to move even if we all tried at once." Shampoo knelt to look under the blade "And a Bakusai Tenketsu would lodge shrapnel into her back or sides if we tried that."

"Give me a lever long enough." Ranma muttered, then noticed the looks on her friends' faces "It's something some I heard someone say once." The martial artist got a strange look on her face as she looked to the mantis "Or a monster big enough."

White robes rustled as Mousse grabbed Ranma's arm to stop her moving out onto the sword blade "Are you insane! That thing is fast and will most likely blast you instead of trying to grab the sword!"

Searching the shadows behind them the demoness saw a single door hidden in the shadows of several columns "Listen, I'll draw its attention and get the sword moved; you two get Spice and go through that door. Don't worry about me I'll be fine all I have to do is dodge it and get out of the room through the door we came in by, hopefully it will be to interested in whatever it came here for and leave me alone." Before the others could protest she jumped up onto the blade and rushed to be closer to the hilt before getting the things attention.

Since it could sense a ki scan or even a small amount of ki Ranma had to get its undivided attention and get it to fire at the blade without getting blasted herself. That meant going all out in speed, something she had never pushed her boots to do. Setting herself she concentrated on going the maximum speed her boots were capable of moving, when she felt the buildup reach maximum she kicked off.

The world around her turned into a smeared blur with the only thing standing out being one of the things six legs. Nearing the last moment she pulled every ounce of ki she could and concentrated it into her right arm focusing on the leg exclusively she swept her fist back then punched as hard as she could, all the while still going full speed. The Mantis hadn't been able to respond in time since by the time it sensed the ki buildup the target it would have attacked was nearly underneath it and even its reaction speeds weren't fast enough to compensate for that kind of speed. Even so the creature was a swift thinker and by the time Ranma's fist connected with its leg it had concocted several plans to handle the diminutive threat.

A sound akin to shredding metal coupled with a loud sonic boom would have been enough to shatter Ranma's eardrums if she hadn't been ahead of the sounds. Even so she skidded to a stop barely a foot from the far wall and immediately cradled her right arm as it felt like she had broken every bone in it. A quick look back showed Mantis's shift in her direction was hampered slightly by the fact that he now only had two legs on one side; this didn't stop him from pointing in her direction. A quick dash was what saved her head as Mantis let loose an energy beam that it began to track her around the room with.

Dashing through rubble and corpses she managed to get into position and lead the beam that was tearing up rock and the armor of the corpses directly into the sword blade causing it to flip into the air and slam into a wall. As she dashed away from the area she had to admit that she was impressed that the sword hadn't even gotten scarred by the beam. She caught sight of the other two slipping out with Mousse carrying Spice. The redhead just hoped that she could get out in one piece, at which point the large creature snagged her with its left lower arm and proceeded to bury her into the stone wall in the expedient way of punching her into it.

Small stones clattered as they fell from their place when Ranma pushed herself up with a groan hoping that the spike of pain in her back didn't mean anything. The screech of metal on rock gave her just enough of a warning to throw herself forward and up as a sword was shoved into the hole in the wall she had recently occupied. A hand planted on the blade flipped her airborne and she twisted around firing a blast into the things face only to have it snap the blade up like bat and bury her into the ceiling.

"This really isn't my day." Ranma muttered as she tried to pull her arms free of the rock so she could drop and get away. It wasn't until she saw the thing lift the massive sword the largest of the giants had been wielding and turn to look at were she was stuck in the ceiling that she started to get worried about her chances of escape. With a crash that nearly deafened her, the blade slammed into the ceiling and she slid down the metal towards the Mantis's head gathering ki as she went. She gathered all the heavy ki she could to increase her weight then leapt from the blade plummeting towards the demons head raising both hands above her head she created a ki sphere almost four foot across and just as she reached the head she brought it down striking with the combination of massive weight, great strength and as much ki as she could together.

"METEOR!"

The thunderous crash of the creature being imbedded into the stone of the floor caused skeletons and rubble around the room to bounce several feet into the air and left the Mantis with large cracks in its armor plating that immediately began to heal. Ranma didn't even get to savor her attack as the demon twisted up and slammed a blow into her body that sent her rocketing across the room to slam into the double doors the four had entered the room through. The crack that had come when she had hit the doors was felt more than heard and Ranma was sure several ribs had gotten cracked if not broken in the impact, still it didn't stop her from running out onto the crystal bridge to try and get away.

She had managed to get some distance before hearing a strange thumping sound from behind her which caused her to look back and up. A large blade coated in black energy came spinning downwards and sheared through the bridge not ten feet from Ranma causing the crystal to shatter and drop the cursed martial artist into empty air. The distance between bridges, and the fact that not all the bridges where directly under one another was the reason that Ranma gave a terrified scream as she plummeted through open air falling for hundreds of feet before slamming into the edge of another bridge. The sickening crack that had come from her ribcage told Ranma that she should be worried but she was spending too much time scrabbling at the smooth crystal trying to get a handhold and failing to care and she soon slipped and fell again.

TEN MINUTES LATER

The demoness jerked awake to find herself staring at red crystal and realizing she was on a bridge. With a pained moan she pushed herself to her hands and knees and then slowly managed to get to her feet only to feel an explosion of pain in her ribs and a weird gurgling coming from her left lung that made her a little worried. It wasn't until a shadow flickered over her that she looked up and became truly worried.

With a loud bang the Mantis slammed down on the bridge Ranma was standing on and she noticed that its head wound and leg had completely regenerated meaning it was probably at full power. The redhead turned and managed a stumbling run away from the creature giving thanks for demon endurance as she was fairly certain that her natural form would have been dead several times over by now. The double doors at the end of the current bridge were still sealed and hadn't been hacked open meaning that she might be able to find a place to hide inside though she was still some distance away. The loud hum was what made her look back and see the red sphere of energy glowing in the demons right hand, a second later the sphere shattered into hundreds of smaller blasts that rocketed downwards towards her and the bridge; the redhead managed a curse just before the blast hit.

The blasts cracked the crystal of the bridge and several were direct strikes to Ranma herself melting and charring the flesh in several parts of her back and blasting her forward. The only plus was that it knocked her so far forwards that she slid through the crack at the base of the doors and into the room she had been heading for, a room that had something of definite interest that Ranma was sure to notice after she had stopped whimpering in pain.

The crashes of the Mantis's scythe blade arms against the doors roused the injured martial artist to look up and try to find a place to hide, which was when she noticed what was in the room. Like all the other rooms she had seen in the stronghold this one was full of dead giants, unlike the others these giants hadn't been killed by the giant Mantis but by being swarmed by thousands of its smaller brethren. It was what was in the center of the room though that pushed the girl to struggle to her feet and begin a stumbling shamble towards it.

Laying the middle of the room were two massive suits of armor that were nothing like anything Ranma had seen yet. They were at least as tall as the large giant they had seen earlier but instead being armored giants these were simply massive suits of empty full plate armor, helms and all with no openings except the slots for eyes. The obsidian black metal suits were all sharp edges with spiked shoulder guards and gauntlets and jagged edges as if they had never been refined to be worn; even so they seemed to fit together perfectly. The suits looked completely unscarred and scratched; the only thing about them both was a large strip of paper over the eye slots of each helm with a strange set of Runes written on each paper. The crash of a scythe arm breaking through the doorway, and an absence of other doors made Ranma do what she did next.

Grabbing the paper stuck to one of the helms she pulled struggling to get it out of the way so she could hide in the armor to escape the Mantis. Her greatly diminished strength managed a small tear in the paper that ripped one of the runes. The first sign was a squeak of metal on metal followed by a loud clang of a gauntlet striking rock as the massive suit of armor pushed itself to its hands and knees and then reached up and tore away the rest of the paper. Ranma saw two large glowing red lights in the place of eyes and the armor turned to its companion and tore away the paper on its helm as well, it wasn't until then that Ranma realized that the paper was some sort of binding meant to keep the armor from moving. That realization was followed by the door shattering open and the angry shriek of the Mantis, a shriek that turned into something equating a surprised squawk as the two armors charged forward and slammed into it struggling to bring the demon down.

Ranma watched the titanic struggle as the Mantis found itself set upon by things it thought its followers had destroyed and was slowly being overwhelmed and pushed backwards onto the stone balcony that the bridge attached to. The demoness leaned heavily against the wall and watched with satisfaction as the Mantis's armor began to crack under the blows thrown at it by the two armors as they moved it closer to the edge of the rock as if they were going to throw it into the lava far below. Crashes echoed from walls as the feet shifted and armors shoved only to have Mantis dig into the stone of the balcony and stop moving. Managing work her way past the struggle Ranma moved as close to the Mantis and the edge of the balcony as she could get and struck the balcony.

"Bakusai Tenketsu!"

A boom of shattering rock and the balcony gave way right in front of her and broke out from under Mantis's feet sending it and its two attackers plummeting down into the lava far below. The martial artist collapsed at the edge of the rock, one arm dangled out over the jagged edge of the stone and as close as she was she could see the bubbling lava far below where the three had fallen into the molten rock. A second later a blade arm burst forth from the lava and buried into stone and Mantis began to pull itself from the rock only to have the two armors break the surface as well and grab it dragging it down into the molten rock once more.

Golden eyes slipped shut and the cursed martial artist slipped into unconsciousness as her body began to heal.

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Descriptions:

METEOR: The person gathers as much heavy ki as possible to increase their weight massively and creates a ki blast also made of that heavy ki making them even heavier and strikes their opponent from above. This attack hits an enemy with enough weight that, combined with the downwards force of the blast, it is almost impossible for anything to remain standing when struck with this attack and if used solely on stone will allow the user to hammer through at least one hundred feet of solid stone. This attack is lethal against most foes and therefore will only be used upon evil creatures.

Heavy ki: to illustrate the weight issue I'll use actual cannon here. Ryoga, by the Herb arc of the manga, is already extremely powerful. Capable of lifting, most probably by manga feats, at least 10 ton with no real problems, he fights against Lime and gets his ass kicked easily as Lime has strength far in excess of his. When Ryoga believes he is going to die and that he'll never get to see Akane again he fills himself with his typical heavy ki, he becomes so heavy that even Lime can not lift him from the ground. This means that Ryoga, at that time must have weighed easily in excess of 20 tons, most probably around 40 to 50 tons as Lime could not move Ryoga at all.

ARMORS: These suits of armor were created by the giants in scant numbers to aid in defense of there strongholds and cities. Unfortunately as these suits of armor are powered by a, very unstable, seed of magic that is melded with the soul of a dead warrior who will then spend eternity serving the rest of their kin as guards not many giants volunteered to become one with the Armors. The Armors can be forged either with the normal forges of the giants or, in much rarer instances, with the gods forge to create powerful warriors that can handle nearly any foe less than a superior demon for giant forges and only a mid level god or equal can handle the gods forge created Armors. The Armors have been known to act strangely at times and lately the giants have stopped creating them entirely leaving the last of them to either shut down when their power seed failed or just never activating the armor itself and storing it away.


End file.
